Indian markets oscillate in tight range in noon trades

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in a tight range on the first trading session of the financial year but were gathering momentum slowly and steadily. Sentiments got a boost with the report that the health of India's manufacturing sector improved for the third straight month in March 2017. The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 52.5 in March from 50.7 in February. The survey said that incoming new orders expanded at a stronger pace, thereby leading to quicker increases in production and input purchasing. Moreover, firms hired additional employees to cope with greater workloads. Some support also came with the report that the India's GDP growth is expected to pick up again to 7.6 per cent next year thanks to improving consumption, timely rains, higher public sector spending and better export growth. According to the report, the ongoing reforms will strengthen the productivity part of growth and the country's GDP will benefit from India's favourable working age population growth.  However, investors shrugged off the report that Core sector growth slowed to a 15-month low in February, led by a drop in cement output. Growth, as measured by the index of eight core industries, eased to 1 per cent in February from 3.4 per cent in January and 9.4 per cent a year earlier.

On the global front, Asian equity markets were trading higher on Monday, cheered by a positive report on the Japanese economy, as players awaited a meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart later in the week.  While a private survey on China's manufacturing on Saturday came in below market expectations it still showed a healthy expansion after a similar survey by the government on Friday pointed to strong growth in the sector. However, a negative lead from Wall Street on Friday capped some gains. The main focus for markets this week centers on U.S. payrolls figures due on Friday.

Back home, stocks from Capital Goods, Energy and Consumer Durables counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from Telecom, IT and Teck counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, Bajaj Auto declined after the company registered a fall of 10.99% in total sales to 272,197 units in March 2017 against 305,800 units in March 2016. On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki India gained after the company reported a jump of 8.05% in total sales at 139,763 units in March 2017.

The market breadth remained optimistic, as there were 1828 shares on the gaining side against 687 shares on the losing side, while 105 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29788.40, up by 167.90 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 29705.72 and 29799.07. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.58%, while Small cap index up by 1.07%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.43%, Energy up by 1.71%, Industrials up by 1.53%, Consumer Durables up by 1.13% and Basic Materials up by 1.09%, while Telecom down by 1.59%, TECK down by 0.99%, IT down by 0.95% and Realty down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 3.81%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.67%, GAIL India up by 2.51%, Axis Bank up by 1.42% and HDFC up by 1.31%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.01%, Wipro down by 1.79%, Infosys down by 1.26%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.02% and TCS down by 0.70% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has expressed his confidence that India's GDP will grow at 7.2 per cent in 2017 and at the rate of 7.7 per cent in 2018. He also pointed out that global growth is moving upwards but emerging market economies (EMEs) face newer challenges from growing protectionism of some economies, global financial condition, policies of the United States and increased geopolitical tension.    

The Minister has stated that India has sought $2 billion loans for various projects from the New Development Bank (NDB), whose core mandate is sustainable infrastructure development and which is set up by the emerging countries such as India, China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa. He also pointed out that in next five years, the country would require Rs 43 lakh crore or $646 billion for modernizing its infrastructure from highways to urban infrastructure. He added that funding needs for building infrastructure in India and other emerging nations offers enormous opportunity to an institution like NDB.

Jaitley further said that growth in emerging and developing countries is picking up and news from economies of BRICS countries is encouraging. He hopes that NDB will help in funding of emerging economies. He added that India was looking to have a mutually beneficial partnership with the bank.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9203.95, up by 30.20 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 9192.40 and 9220.65. There were 23 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.83%, Reliance Industries up by 3.65%, GAIL India up by 2.36%, Ambuja Cement up by 1.75% and ACC up by 1.45%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.04%, Wipro down by 1.82%, Infosys down by 1.49%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.49% and HCL Tech down by 1.47% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 0.14%, KOSPI Index jumped 0.22%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.68%, Jakarta Composite added 0.62% and Hang Seng was up by 0.32%.