Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks traded on a firm note on first day of the week and closed in green with gain of around one percent. The equity benchmarks made a positive start and traded in fine fettle in early deals taking support with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India continues to be the fastest growing major economy in the world and its growth will accelerate further due to factors like implementation of GST. The economy will grow at a clip of 7.5 percent this fiscal, up from 7.1 percent in the previous year and it remains resilient with low inflation, fiscal prudence and low deficit. Jaitley added that scrapping of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes will increase tax compliance and reduce threat of counterfeit currency. Investors also took note of Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement that India will be a Rs 469 lakh crore, or $7.2 trillion, economy by 2030, growing at an average rate of 8 percent. This would be a more than three-fold expansion from Rs 137 lakh crore, or $2.1 trillion, in 2015-16. Sentiments remained up-beat with International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) report which sees signs of recovery in the country’s economy post demonetization and has said that the impact of demonetization has abated and it pointed that indicators such as index of industrial production (IIP) and the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) have also shown a nice recovery. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon states to ‘speed up capital expenditure and infrastructure creation’ to spur economic growth. He further said the vision of ‘New India’ can only be realized through the combined efforts and cooperation of all the states.

On the global front, Asian markets closed mostly in green, barring China stocks which tumbled more than 1 percent in their worst day this year amid signs that Beijing will tolerate further market volatility as regulators increasingly clamp down on shadow banking and speculative trading. European shares were trading in green as equities breathed a sigh of relief over the outcome of the presidential elections in France, pushing the German benchmark index to an all-time high.

Back home, majority of cement companies closed in green after ACC reported a better than expected 3.8% year on year (YoY) volume growth for the quarter ended March 2017.

The BSE Sensex ended at 29657.88, up by 292.58 points or 1.00% after trading in a range of 29392.99 and 29681.33. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.93%, while Small cap index was up by 0.78%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.17%, Basic Materials up by 2.05%, Capital Goods up by 1.52%, Bankex up by 1.33% and Industrials up by 1.31%, while Healthcare down by 0.46% and Consumer Durables down by 0.04% were the only losers on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 2.60%, HDFC Bank up by 2.55%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.51%, Axis Bank up by 2.31% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.67%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Lupin down by 3.41%, Cipla down by 1.39%, NTPC down by 0.45%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.31% and Power Grid down by 0.29% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, after projecting India's growth to rebound to 7.2 per cent in 2017 and 7.7 per cent in 2018, in its recent report, International Monetary Fund (IMF) sees signs of recovery in the country’s economy post demonetization and has said that the impact of demonetization has abated and about 75 per cent of the cash has been replaced in the economy, it pointed that indicators such as index of industrial production (IIP) and the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) have also shown a nice recovery.

However, the global multilateral agency expressed the need of quick replacement of the defunct currency in order to restore missing transactions and support the peoples' spending capacity, as cash is an important element in the Indian economy. It further stated that in general it supports the Indian government's efforts to combat the illicit financial flows, and to produce the share of the informal economy.

IMF in their forecast, reflecting the temporary dislocation associated with the demonetisation scheme had lowered the growth target by almost a full percentage point compared to the October, owing about a half a per cent for growth this year and half a percent for growth next year.

The CNX Nifty ended at 9215.95, up by 96.55 points or 1.06% after trading in a range of 9130.55 and 9225.40. There were 39 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were ACC up by 7.51%, Grasim Industries up by 4.71%, Ultratech Cement up by 3.81%, GAIL India up by 3.10% and Ambuja Cement up by 2.99%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Lupin down by 3.19%, Cipla down by 1.42%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 1.08%, Zee Entertainment down by 0.77% and NTPC down by 0.75% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 127.77 points or 1.8% to 7,242.32, Germany’s DAX increased 338.83 points or 2.81% to 12,387.40 and France’s CAC increased 214.81 points or 4.25% to 5,274.01.

Asian equity markets ended mostly in green on Monday after Sunday's election results in France that came broadly in line with polls. Centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen have won the first round of the French presidential election, triggering a runoff on May 7. Macron wants reforms to pep up France's economy and strengthen its position in Europe. On the other hand, Ms Le Pen intends to leave the euro and hold an in-out referendum on EU membership within six months of taking power. Japanese shares ended higher after the yen fell sharply against the dollar. Though, China stocks ended lower on Monday in their worst day this year amid signs that Beijing will tolerate further market volatility as regulators increasingly clamp down on shadow banking and speculative trading. Markets in Indonesia and Malaysia are closed for a holiday.