Indian benchmarks set new record close; Sensex ends above 30,000 mark

The penultimate day of April series futures and options contract expiry turned out to be a good session for the Indian frontline equity indices as they managed to settle higher for a third straight session, with both Sensex and Nifty closing at fresh record highs, buoyed by better-than-expected quarterly results and positive global cues. Investor sentiments around the globe turned optimistic on possible tax cuts, likely to be announced on Wednesday by President Donald Trump to stimulate the US economy and the outcome of the French election allaying immediate concerns of political uncertainty in the euro zone. On the domestic front, sentiments got a boost after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asserted that the government was giving top priority to addressing the issue of bad loans, while acknowledging that the problem of non-performing assets was ‘adversely impacting’ the Indian banking system. Besides, Indian rupee appreciating against the dollar to trade at a near 21-month high of 64.07 fuelled the bull run of the bourses. Investors got some confidence from the survey indicating 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, representing a significant jump over last year's 58%.

Some support also came with Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia assuring that prices will not increase due to higher incidence of tax and instead, are likely to come down under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. He said that though most services will be taxed at 18% under the GST regime, as against the current 15% service tax, a majority of these will get input tax credit on purchases and the overall tax incidence will remain the same. Meanwhile, with the Sensex climbing over 30,000 points, India's market capitalization (m-cap) inching towards $2 trillion-mark. The country's m-cap in dollar terms currently is highest-ever $1.94 trillion, less than 3% shy of the elite milestone. Currently, only 8 other countries have a market value higher than India. A stronger rupee has raised the value of Indian markets and has also increased returns for foreign investors in constant currency terms.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday, following the overnight gains on Wall Street amid upbeat corporate earnings results and on optimism that US President Donald Trump is expected to unveil a tax plan later in the day. Chinese market edged higher after China's politburo said the country will continue to adopt a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy. Further, Japanese markets rose to near one-month highs, buoyed by a weaker yen and record high for the Nasdaq Composite, while Financials led the Hong Kong stock market higher as fund managers bet on expectations the quality of banks' balance sheets will likely get better on an improving economic cycle and cheaper valuations. However, European markets opened slightly lower ahead of an important tax announcement in the US. Meanwhile, dollar edged higher against the yen on Wednesday, while the euro held firm near a 5-1/2 month high due to receding concerns about the risks posed by the French presidential election. The dollar rose 0.3% to 111.38 yen, pulling further away from a five-month low of 108.13 yen set on April 17.

Back home, the local benchmark got off to a positive start as investors were largely influenced by the supportive leads from global markets. Thereafter, the frontline indices slowly and steadily started gathering steam and surged by over half a percent by late morning trades. But the optimism soon started showing signs of easing in late hours of trade and profit booking in few sectors and drifting European markets weighed down the local bourses in late afternoon session. However, some short covering in final hours of trade, stoked the bourses once again near highest point in the session. Eventually, the NSE's 50-share broadly followed index Nifty, convalesced by close to half percent to settle above the crucial 9,350 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index, Sensex accumulated close to two hundred points and closed above the psychological 30,100 mark. Moreover, the broader markets succumbed to the selling pressure despite showing positive moves early on and settled with moderate cuts. 

The market breadth remained pessimistic, as there were 952 shares on the gaining side against 1954 shares on the losing side, while 139 shares remained unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 190.11 points or 0.63% to 30133.35, while the CNX Nifty was up by 45.25 points or 0.49% to 9,351.85. 

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 30167.09 and 29968.57, respectively and there were 18 stocks on gainers side as against 12 stocks on the losers side on the index.

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.12%, while Small cap index was down by 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 2.04%, Auto up by 1.01%, Bankex up by 0.82%, Metal up by 0.47% and Consumer Disc up by 0.31%, while Realty down by 2.95%, Energy down by 1.13%, IT down by 1.08%, Oil & Gas down by 1.02% and TECK down by 0.89% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 3.36%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.29%, HDFC up by 2.36%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.82% and ICICI Bank up by 1.61%. On the flip side, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.28%, Infosys down by 1.61%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.31%, Power Grid down by 1.30% and Reliance Industries down by 1.13% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association (IWTMA), an apex wind energy sector body, has said that India’s total installed wind power generation capacity has crossed 32 GW mark so far. It also said that there should be at least 6 GW of capacity addition every year in order to meet the target of having 60 GW by 2022.

IWTMA Chairman Sarvesh Kumar has said that the country's wind power generation capacity is over 32 GW after addition of 5.4 GW in the previous fiscal. Talking about the expected capacity addition in 2017-18, he said that they are going to add 6 GW and it is based on certain fundamental as the government alone will auction 4 GW of capacities during this fiscal. Elaborating further, he said that apart from government auctions, there would be addition of wind power capacities by the industry and institutions. 

In February 2017, the government has decided to go through the bidding route as the first ever auction of wind power projects, where power tariffs dropped to all-time low of Rs 3.46 per unit. Wind power capacity of 1 GW was auctioned by the Solar Energy Corporation of India in the month of February. In terms of wind capacity installation, India is at the fourth position globally after China, the US and Germany. 

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 9,367.00 and 9,301.35. There were 21 stocks in green as against 30 stocks in red on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.64%, ITC up by 3.48%, Hindalco up by 3.05%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.98% and HDFC up by 1.79%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 2.90%, Bharti Infratel down by 2.64%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.63%, HCL Tech down by 2.31% and Infosys down by 1.64% were the top losers.

The European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 1.64 points or 0.02% to 7,274.00, Germany’s DAX decreased 3.83 points or 0.03% to 12,463.21, while France’s CAC increased 8.07 points or 0.15% to 5,285.95.

Asian equity markets ended in green on Wednesday, with Japanese shares rising after Wall Street hit new peaks overnight on the back of strong earnings and expectations that the Trump administration will unveil a new tax plan on Wednesday. The yen continued to weaken ahead of BOJ and ECB policy meetings and oil prices slipped on data showing a surprise build-up in inventories, while gold prices hovered near two-week lows after losing almost 1 percent in the previous session. Further, Chinese shares ended higher after China's politburo said the country will continue to adopt a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy.