Markets trade firm near highest point of the day

Following the strong opening in European markets, Indian equity benchmarks enlarged their gains in late afternoon session to trade at day's high, led by advances in Realty, Basic Materials and Capital Goods stocks. Additionally, cement shares outperformed after ACC reported a better than expected 3.8% year on year (YoY) volume growth for the quarter ended March 2017. Sentiments remained positive with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that Indian economy will grow at a clip of 7.5% this fiscal, up from 7.1% in the previous year and it remains resilient with low inflation, fiscal prudence and low deficit. Some support also came 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 pointed that indicators such as index of industrial production (IIP) and the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) have also shown a nice recovery. Investors remained optimistic after the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) 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. Furthermore, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $889.4 million to $369.887 billion during the week ended April 14, helped by increase in foreign currency assets.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green after the centrist Emmanuel Macron won the first round of the French election. Asian markets were also trading in green. Back home, in scrip specific development, Reliance Communications (RCom) edged higher after the company received an approval for demerger of wireless business into Aircel.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29647.52, up by 282.22 points or 0.96% after trading in a range of 29392.99 and 29681.33. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.78%, while Small cap index up by 0.93%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.19%, Basic Materials up by 2.36%, Capital Goods up by 1.63%, Industrials up by 1.38% and Bankex up by 1.30%, while Healthcare down by 0.55%, TECK down by 0.08% and Consumer Durables down by 0.06% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 2.57%, GAIL India up by 2.46%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.40%, Reliance Industries up by 2.28% and HDFC Bank up by 2.25%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 3.38%, Cipla down by 1.00%, Infosys down by 0.61%, Wipro down by 0.58% and Power Grid down by 0.44% were the top losers.

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 is currently trading at 9213.15, up by 93.75 points or 1.03% after trading in a range of 9130.55 and 9218.55. There were 37 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ACC up by 7.84%, Grasim Industries up by 4.66%, Ambuja Cement up by 3.61%, Ultratech Cement up by 3.56% and GAIL India up by 2.63%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.93%, Cipla down by 1.12%, Indian Oil Corp. down by 0.88%, Zee Entertainment down by 0.84% and Infosys down by 0.65% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted increased 0.54 points or 0.01% to 9,717.95, KOSPI Index increased 8.7 points or 0.4% to 2,173.74, Jakarta Composite increased 69.17 points or 1.24% to 5,664.48, Hang Seng increased 97.46 points or 0.41% to 24,139.48 and Nikkei 225 increased 255.13 points or 1.37% to 18,875.88. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 43.62 points or 1.37% to 3,129.53.

All European Markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 118.59 points or 1.67% to 7,233.14, France’s CAC increased 206.23 points or 4.08% to 5,265.43 and Germany’s DAX increased 319.35 points or 2.65% to 12,367.92.