Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks traded on a firm note throughout the day and closed in green as the mood remained buoyant, bolstered by retail as well as domestic institutional investors. The street witnessed some selling pressure ahead of expiry in February’s derivative contracts but the equity benchmarks managed to retain modest gains. The equity benchmarks made a positive start and traded in fine fettle in early deals as traders took support with International Monetary Fund (IMF) assessment report that the adoption of the GST could help raise India’s medium-term GDP growth to over 8% and create a single national market for enhancing the efficiency of the movement of goods and services. It however raised concern that the GDP growth is projected to slow to 6.6% in FY17, largely due to a disruption in private consumption from demonetization. It expects growth to rebound to 7.2% in FY18. IMF said that the cost of recapitalizing India’s struggling banks would be affordable even under a negative scenario, urging government steps to strengthen the financial system. It added that recapitalization costs should be manageable at between 1.5 and 2.4% of forecast GDP. Some support also came with global rating agency, S&P report which in its latest Asia-Pacific (APAC) Economic Snapshots, has said that the negative effects of demonetization on the Indian economy have begun to reverse but it is still far from returning to pre-November 2016 trends. Select buying was seen in banking stocks, as the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian emphasized the need to move full steam to deal with the problem of bad loans facing banking sector. He said that the government is considering setting up a state-owned asset reconstruction company to deal with mounting bad loans. The market will remain closed tomorrow on Friday i.e. February 24, 2017 on account of ‘Mahashivratri’ holiday.

On the global front, Asian markets closed mixed, with Japan’s Nikkei closed fractionally lower. Japan’s government lowered its assessment of consumer spending in February, the first downgrade in 11 months, as some shoppers have become increasingly frugal in the face of rising food prices. Indonesia stocks close higher as gains in the Trade, Miscellaneous Industry and Mining sectors led shares higher. South Korean shares close slightly in green after the central bank kept interest rates unchanged for an eighth straight month, opting for stability as it monitors uncertainties ranging from an unpredictable North Korea to global policy challenges and a political scandal at home. European stocks were trading in green as investors focused on fresh corporate earnings reports as well and as political concerns in France persisted.

The BSE Sensex ended at 28905.88, up by 41.17 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 28860.46 and 29065.31. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.13%, while Small cap index was up by 0.07%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.85%, IT up by 1.67%, TECK up by 1.65%, Realty up by 0.76% and Consumer Durables up by 0.56%, while Energy down by 0.73%, Power down by 0.59%, Utilities down by 0.46%, Consumer Disc down by 0.31% and PSU down by 0.19% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 3.05%, TCS up by 2.97%, Infosys up by 1.70%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.68% and ITC up by 1.02%.  (Provisional)
On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 1.83%, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 1.18%, Power Grid down by 1.02%, Asian Paints down by 0.99% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.90% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, global rating agency, S&P rating in its latest Asia-Pacific (APAC) Economic Snapshots, has said that the negative effects of demonetisation on the Indian economy have begun to reverse but it is still far from returning to pre-November 2016 trends.

Regarding the macroeconomic indicators, the report said that inflation eased further in January mainly due food and fuel and the Reserve Bank of India kept its benchmark repo rate on hold at 6.25 percent. It also praised fiscal deficit target of 2017-18, saying that the Indian government announced a reasonably ambitious fiscal deficit target of 3.2 percent of GDP in the fiscal year ending March 2018, keeping the headline indicator on an improving trend.

S&P which had earlier said that note ban will have a 'higher disruptive impact' on informal, rural, and cash-based segments of the economy, after the government announced demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, had recently revised downwards its estimated economic growth rate for 2016-17 by one percentage point to 6.9 per cent to reflect the disruption caused by the surprise move of demonetisation.

The CNX Nifty ended at 8941.20, up by 14.30 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 8927.55 and 8982.15. There were 23 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Idea Cellular up by 6.57%, Wipro up by 2.81%, TCS up by 2.80%, Infosys up by 1.56% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.53%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Grasim Industries down by 1.75%, Reliance Industries down by 1.71%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 1.58%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.26% and Eicher Motors down by 1.25% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 2.11 points or 0.03% to 7,304.36, Germany’s DAX increased 7.43 points or 0.06% to 12,006.02 and France’s CAC increased 11.63 points or 0.24% to 4,907.51.

Asian markets made a mixed closing on Thursday, following their US counterparts after the Federal Open Market Committee released the minutes of its two-day meeting ended Feb. 1, where members believed it might be appropriate to lift U.S. interest-rates “fairly soon.” The Korean benchmark Kospi index ended flat as the country’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged, as expected for an eighth straight month, awaiting clarity on global policy changes. The Japanese market ended in red as the yen was higher against dollar, pressuring exporters’ bottom lines by making it more expensive for them to ship their goods around the globe. Chinese stocks too fell, with realty and construction-related stocks leading declines, after reports emerged that China's financial regulators are working on new rules to rein in asset management risks.