Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals; Sensex reclaims 29,500 mark

Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 29,500 (Sensex) and 9,150 (Nifty) levels, as traders took some encouragement with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that Indian 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. Some support also came after the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has asked all the ministries and departments to modify enabling framework and regulations in tune with the liberalised FDI policy with a view to attracting more foreign investment.

On the global front, Asian markets were exhibiting mixed trend at this point of time with some of the indices in the region trading in red led by the Chinese market. The euro jumped the most in a month, while the yen retreated and volatility ebbed as Macron and far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen won the first round of voting in France. The US markets ended marginally lower in the last session, despite the release of bullish economic data and an update from President Donald Trump on his tax reform plan.

Back home, stocks related to software pack remained buzzing, as the Finance Minister has taken up the vexed issue of the Trump administration mulling curbs in H-1B, with the American authorities during his ongoing visit, though the US has accused top Indian IT firms TCS and Infosys of unfairly cornering the lion's share of H-1B visas by putting extra tickets in the lottery system. Back home, the market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was strong, with 1,450 shares gaining and 720 shares declining, while a total of 79 shares were unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29501.70, up by 136.40 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 29392.99 and 29526.19. There were 16 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.46%, while Small cap index was up by 0.78%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.96%, Capital Goods up by 1.39%, Industrials up by 1.09%, Basic Materials up by 1.08% and Bankex up by 0.71%, while Healthcare down by 0.41%, Telecom down by 0.33%, Metal down by 0.32%, TECK down by 0.31% and FMCG down by 0.21% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC Bank up by 2.17%, Adani Ports up by 2.09%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.99%, Reliance Industries up by 1.15% and HDFC was up by 1.10%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.03%, Cipla down by 0.78%, Sun Pharma down by 0.77%, Infosys down by 0.69% and ITC was down by 0.58% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in the third meeting of NITI Aayog’s Governing Council chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was called to deliberate on the 15-year Vision Document to accelerate the country's economic development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon states to work with his government as part of Team India, help identify goals for 2022 and work in 'Mission mode' towards achieving them.

The Prime Minister and state chief ministers considered a new approach in policy planning that aims to give states a greater say in determining national priorities-including in internal security and defence-set out in a 15-year vision and a draft three-year short-term action plan ending 2019-20.

The short-term action plan coincides with the remaining three years of the 14th Finance Commission’s award period ending in 2019-20 as it gives certainty on the cash flow of central and state governments for the period. PM Modi said the vision of ‘New India’ can be realised “only through the combined efforts of all states and chief ministers”.

The vision document and the draft 300-point action plan prepared with suggestions from states and gram sabhas rest upon the spirit of cooperative federalism that succeeds the Nehruvian era’s centralized five-year planning that drew to a close on 31 March with the end of the 12th five year plan. The vision document projects the economy to grow more than three-fold to Rs 469 lakh crore by 2031-32, from Rs 137 lakh crore in 2015-16, assuming an 8% annual growth.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9161.20, up by 41.80 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 9130.55 and 9167.15. There were 31 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim Industries up by 4.16%, ACC up by 3.88%, Indiabulls Housing up by 2.23%, Adani Ports up by 2.18% and HDFC Bank was up by 2.15%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 1.89%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 1.04%, Cipla down by 0.98%, BPCL down by 0.93% and Zee Entertainment was down by 0.78% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; KOSPI Index gained 3.71 points or 0.17% to 2,168.75, Jakarta Composite surged 69.17 points or 1.24% to 5,664.48 and Nikkei 225 was up by 235.31 points or 1.26% to 18,856.06.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 49.35 points or 1.56% to 3,123.80, Hang Seng decreased 25.79 points or 0.11% to 24,016.23 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 4.99 points or 0.05% to 9,712.42.