Markets hover near intraday high in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks extended their gains and were hovering near intraday high in late afternoon session amid robust foreign fund inflows and expiry of February series F&O later today. Sustained buying in telecom, information technology and a few front line stocks from capital goods and consumer durables sectors helped the markets to continue their northward momentum. Sentiments remained optimistic with a report that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) foresees India’s economic growth rebounding to 7.2 per cent next fiscal, up from the projected 6.6 per cent in 2016-17 after demonetisation. Some support also came with global rating agency S&P rating’s statement that the negative effects of demonetisation on the Indian economy have begun to reverse.

On the global front, European markets were trading mixed as investors eyed a further raft of corporate earnings reports. Asian markets were trading in red after the latest Fed minutes raised the possibility that a U.S. rate hike could come sooner than expected. Back home, in scrip specific development, DHFL was trading in green after the company decided to raise Rs 1,500 crore through non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on private placement basis.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29011.99, up by 147.28 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 28904.34 and 29065.31. There were 22 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.46%, while Small cap index was up by 0.37%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.36%, IT up by 2.03%, TECK up by 2.03%, Capital Goods up by 0.99% and Consumer Durables up by 0.94%, while Energy down by 0.63%, Power down by 0.20%, Utilities down by 0.14% and Oil & Gas down by 0.04% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 2.57%, Infosys up by 2.35%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.28%, Wipro up by 2.06% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.65%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 2.02%, Power Grid down by 0.70%, ONGC down by 0.54%, HDFC down by 0.41% and NTPC down by 0.24% were the top losers.

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 is currently trading at 8970.75, up by 43.85 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 8935.40 and 8982.15. There were 35 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Idea Cellular up by 5.77%, TCS up by 2.54%, Infosys up by 2.51%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.44% and Wipro up by 1.99%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 2.17%, Grasim Industries down by 1.54%, Bharti Infratel down by 0.91%, Power Grid down by 0.84% and Bosch down by 0.73% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 87.1 points or 0.36% to 24,114.86, Shanghai Composite decreased 9.84 points or 0.3% to 3,251.38, Taiwan Weighted decreased 9.47 points or 0.1% to 9,769.31, Nikkei 225 decreased 8.41 points or 0.04% to 19,371.46 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 3.65 points or 0.21% to 1,704.43. On the flip side, KOSPI Index increased 1.02 points or 0.05% to 2,107.63 and Jakarta Composite increased 9.56 points or 0.18% to 5,368.24.

European Markets were trading mixed; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 14.93 points or 0.2% to 7,287.32 and Germany’s DAX decreased 3.72 points or 0.03% to 11,994.87. On the flip side, France’s CAC increased 11.3 points or 0.23% to 4,907.18.