Firm trade prevails in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in late morning session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Sentiments remained upbeat, as the Bihar assembly in a special session unanimously passed the Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the consensus on Goods and Services Tax (GST) reflects the spirit of ‘one nation, one aspiration, one determination’. Traders were also drawing support from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India will continue to grow at 7-8 percent rate, an absolute normal for the nation under the current global environment. Jaitley said as far as the economy is concerned, all the decisions taken by the Modi-Government are consistently in one direction. Jaitley enlightened while speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations that all economic parameters in terms of fiscal prudence, fiscal deficit, current account deficit, inflation control, have been quite encouraging. They have never been so good as far as India is concerned. Some support also came taking clue from Reliance Industries (RIL) numbers after market hours yesterday, which beating the estimates reported a 12.3% increase in quarterly net profit as its giant refinery was more than twice as profitable as its Singapore peers and petrochemical margins were robust. The company exuded optimism about future growth from ongoing projects, its nascent telecom venture and the rapidly growing retail network. The rupee opened higher against dollar on Tuesday on account of some selling of American currency by banks and exporters. Foreign Portfolio Investors stood net buyers in domestic equity markets on Monday and bought shares worth Rs 1,250.68 crore with gross purchases and gross sales of Rs 5,246.74 crore and Rs 3,996.06 crore, respectively.

Traders were seen piling position in Energy, Telecom and Oil & Gas sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Rallis India was trading under pressure as the company on Monday after market hours reported 8.82 per cent decline in profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 31 crore in the quarter ended March 31 compared to the same period last year. PAT stood at Rs 34 crore during the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year. The market may remain volatile this week as traders may roll over positions in the Futures & Options (F&O) segment from the near month i.e. April 2017 series to next month i.e. May 2017 series. The near month April 2017 derivatives contracts will expire on Thursday i.e. April 27, 2017.

On the global front, Asian shares were trading mostly in green, with some markets at multi-year highs on continued upbeat sentiment after the first round of France’s presidential election stoked a relief rally, though regional investors are keeping a close eye on the Korean peninsula. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 9,250 and 29,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1489:930, while 104 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29802.83, up by 146.99 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 29780.84 and 29841.39. 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 0.92%, while Small cap index was up by 0.72%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 1.38%, Telecom up by 1.33%, Oil & Gas up by 1.25%, Realty up by 1.23% and Capital Goods up by 0.99%, while there were no losers on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.17%, Reliance Industries up by 1.73%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.28%, ICICI Bank up by 1.21% and Power Grid up by 1.00%.

On the flip side, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 0.81%, TCS down by 0.62%, ONGC down by 0.44%, Cipla down by 0.26% and Wipro down by 0.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya has expressed his confidence that the size of the Indian economy will see over three-fold expansion at $7.25 trillion by 2030 and clock an average growth rate of 8 percent in rupee and 10 per cent in dollar terms, over the next 15 years. He also noted that in 2015-16 the country’s GDP stood at $2.11 trillion.

Panagariya has clarified that India’s per capita GDP is expected to increase to Rs 3,14,776 in 2031-32 from Rs 1,06,589 in 2015-16, while the country’s urban population is also expected to rise by 22 crore by 2031-32 to 60 crore as against 37.7 crore in 2011. He also highlighted that the central and state expenditure is expected to rise by Rs 92 lakh crore to Rs 130 lakh crore in 2031-32 from Rs 38 lakh crore in 2015-16. He added that the total and the per capita GDP have been calculated at 2015-16 prices.

He also outlined the three-year action plan, the draft of which is in final stages. He said that the action plan was a part of the seven-year National Development Agenda, which in turn was a part of the 15-year vision document. He pointed out that even as the new process replaces for the five-year plans, it has not been put into place despite the twelfth five-year plan ending on March 31. Panagariya listed as many as 300 action points aimed at accelerating the economic growth of the country.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9263.35, up by 45.40 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 9250.35 and 9279.80. There were 36 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 2.92%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.64%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.57%, Indian Oil Corporation up by 2.38% and Reliance Industries up by 1.63%.

On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.97%, Eicher Motors down by 0.93%, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 0.77%, TCS down by 0.63% and ONGC down by 0.50% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 3.28 points or 0.19% to 1,759.33, Shanghai Composite increased 11.9 points or 0.38% to 3,141.43, KOSPI Index increased 15.57 points or 0.72% to 2,189.31, Taiwan Weighted increased 79.52 points or 0.82% to 9,797.47, Nikkei 225 increased 156.62 points or 0.83% to 19,032.50 and Hang Seng increased 242.22 points or 1% to 24,381.70.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite decreased 4.07 points or 0.07% to 5,660.41.