Benchmarks continue firm trade; Sensex holds 30000 mark

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in late morning session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The broader markets continued upside trend for third consecutive session, with the Sensex breaching 30000 mark ahead of expiry of April Futures & Options contracts due tomorrow. The rupee continued its firming trend on Wednesday and was trading higher against the greenback in early trade on sustained dollar unwinding by exporters and companies. Traders were taking support from NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy’s statement who while making a case for widening the taxpayer base said that agricultural income should be taxed at the same threshold as personal income and farm income could be assessed for tax as a three-year average. Separately, stable farm output growth is expected in FY18. India expects its farm output growth to remain stable at 4% in the 2017-18 crop year, penciling in normal rains during the June-September monsoon season that helps irrigate farmlands across vast swathes of the country. Some support also came on survey that India continues to remain an economic bright spot despite some bold but disruptive reforms. The FICCI-PwC India Manufacturing Barometer (IMB) survey stated that about 63% of respondents were somewhat optimistic about the prospects of the Indian economy for the coming year. Meanwhile, investors took note that the combined benefit of relative and absolute outperformance of the Indian market has pushed India’s contribution to the global market capitalization to a six-year high. India’s equity market contribution to the total market capitalization touched 2.71% on April 24, compared with the six-year average of 2.21%.

Traders were seen piling position in Metal, FMCG and Basic Materials stocks, while selling was witnessed in IT, TECK and Energy stocks. In scrip specific development, Wipro was trading in green after the consolidated net profit of the IT company jumped 7.19% on quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis to Rs 2,267 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2017. It had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2114.80 crore in the sequential quarter ended December 31, 2016. 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, as expectations that President Donald Trump would unveil an ambitious tax cutting program supported sentiment, though investors said there was caution as the president has not yet tasted legislative success on his program. In a report, Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said that Japan’s All Industries Activity Index rose to a seasonally adjusted 0.7%, from -0.4% in the preceding month whose figure was revised down from 0.1%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 9,300 and 30,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1321:1108, while 117 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 30062.58, up by 119.34 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 30004.28 and 30118.86. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.20%, while Small cap index was up by 0.42%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.35%, FMCG up by 1.18%, Basic Materials up by 0.90%, Bankex up by 0.68% and Auto up by 0.61%, while IT down by 0.49%, TECK down by 0.46%, Energy down by 0.39%, Telecom down by 0.30% and Realty down by 0.29% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 1.85%, Asian Paints up by 1.64%, Tata Steel up by 1.50%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.49% and GAIL India up by 1.26%.

On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.07%, Cipla down by 1.01%, NTPC down by 0.72%, Reliance Industries down by 0.52% and Power Grid down by 0.50% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian has expressed his concerns that any serious actions taken by the Donald Trump government against issue of tightening of the H-1B visa regime would worry India quite a bit, as nearly 50 to 60 percent of India's export services go to the United States. He also highlighted that the country’s exports of services are about 40 to 45 percent of the total exports.

Subramanian has stated that India is keeping a close watch on the US visa reforms and that the country will be okay as long as the visa reforms are manageable. He also said that anything that is going to interfere with export growth creates anxiety in India. Adding further, he said that in the context of the US, they are watching the H1-B visa situation very carefully.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had also taken up the issue of H-1B visas for skilled professionals from India with the American side and also highlighted the contribution which Indian companies and professionals are making to the US economy. The issue stems from recent executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump which indicate a possible tightening of the H-1B visas.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9342.40, up by 35.80 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 9301.35 and 9357.55. There were 30 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 2.82%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.27%, ITC up by 1.85%, Asian Paints up by 1.57% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.53%.

On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 1.79%, Infosys down by 1.17%, Cipla down by 1.08%, BPCL down by 0.99% and Indiabulls Housing down by 0.96% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 3.04 points or 0.17% to 1,768.84, Taiwan Weighted increased 7.55 points or 0.08% to 9,849.26, Shanghai Composite increased 10.62 points or 0.34% to 3,145.19, KOSPI Index increased 11.84 points or 0.54% to 2,208.69, Hang Seng increased 158.95 points or 0.65% to 24,614.89 and Nikkei 225 increased 187.61 points or 0.98% to 19,266.94.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite decreased 0.2 points to 5,680.60.