Post Session: Quick Review

Bulls went berserk on Wednesday and Indian equity benchmarks ended the session at their record closing high levels, with frontline gauges surpassing their crucial 9,400 (Nifty) and 30,200 (Sensex) levels. In an extremely buoyant session of trade, equity indices after getting positive start, went on steadily gaining ground and halted only at day’s high by close of trade. Sentiments remained up-beat with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) predicting a ‘normal’ monsoon this calendar and expecting 100 per cent rainfall instead of 96 per cent as predicted earlier. It has said that recent development on El-Nino indicates that the monsoon could be normal this year and it could reach 100 per cent of the long period average. Some support also came with commerce & industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman stating that India’s manufacturing policy will soon be overhauled with the objective of creating more jobs in an environment where technology is rapidly replacing labour.

Domestic sentiments were also buoyed by commerce & industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that India’s manufacturing policy will soon be overhauled with the objective of creating more jobs in an environment where technology is rapidly replacing labour. Traders also took some encouragement with the private report that Indian business leaders are the most confident among the world’s 10 largest economies. The confidence of Indian leaders rose 3.2 points to 66 in the first quarter of 2017, reversing the decline seen in the fourth quarter of 2016, when confidence dipped in the immediate aftermath of the government’s decision to invalidate old high-value currency notes.

On the global front, European markets made a cautious start, as investors focused on fresh corporate earnings and the dollar pared recent gains amid a rise in political tensions. Asian markets exhibited mixed trend, as tensions surrounding North Korea kept underlying sentiments cautious.

Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too participated strongly in the rally. On the sectoral front, the telecom space rang loud shrugging off the apprehension of continued financial weakness, after Bharti Airtel posted a 72% decline in net profit for the fourth quarter, impacted by free services offered by new entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm. The infrastructure space too remained on buyers’ radar on reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reviewed progress of key infrastructure sectors including petroleum and natural gas, power, renewable energy and housing. The Prime Minister called for greater emphasis on ethanol blending, and evolution of mechanisms so that farmers can benefit the most from this process.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty gained ninety points to end above the psychological 9,400 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex surged by over three hundred and ten points to finish above its psychological 30,200 mark. Broader markets too traded in-line with benchmarks and ended the session with a gain of around a percent.

The market breadth remained in favour of advances, as there were 1,622 shares on the gaining side against 1,227 shares on the losing side while 172 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex ended at 30248.17, up by 314.92 points or 1.05% after trading in a range of 29987.44 and 30271.60. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.87%, while Small cap index up by 0.75%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 4.59%, FMCG up by 1.81%, Auto up by 1.47%, Energy up by 1.34% and Consumer Disc up by 0.95%, while IT down by 0.42% and Realty down by 0.15% were the only losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 7.96%, Hindustan Unilever up by 4.32%, HDFC up by 3.31%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.46% and Reliance Industries up by 2.34%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.51%, TCS down by 1.18%, Asian Paints down by 1.14%, ICICI Bank down by 1.03% and GAIL India down by 0.52% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the government has set up a high-level task force in order to deal with employment data discrepancies and ensure the timely availability of reliable information regarding job creation. The task force will recommend solutions which can be implemented in a time-bound manner. The government attaches the highest priority to job creation.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed that this task be expedited so that policies on employment can be formulated with a proper appreciation of impacts, based on credible data. India suffers from a lack of reliable, timely data on employment which has made it difficult for policy makers and independent observers to assess the extent of employment generation at different points of time. Some data is collected and published by certain agencies including the Labour Bureau, but the coverage is very small as it covers only a few sectors and the methodology is not based on updated panel of survey respondents.

The task force will be headed by government think tank NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagriya. The other members will include Labour Secretary M Sathiyavathy, Secretary of Statistics TCA Ananth, Pulak Ghosh of NITI Aayog and Manish Sabharwal, chairman of human resource services TeamLease.

The CNX Nifty ended at 9407.30, up by 90.45 points or 0.97% after trading in a range of 9336.00 and 9414.75. There were 34 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 7.97%, Hindustan Unilever up by 4.65%, Zee Entertainment up by 4.15%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 4.14% and HDFC up by 3.18%. On the flip side, Tata Power down by 1.87%, Wipro down by 1.82%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.47%, GAIL India down by 1.02% and TCS down by 0.85% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mixed; France’s CAC decreased 3.59 points or 0.07% to 5,394.42 and Germany’s DAX was down by 3.57 points or 0.03% to 12,745.55, while UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 16.12 points or 0.22% to 7,358.33.

Asian equity markets made a mixed closing on Wednesday as investors digested corporate earnings and US President Donald Trump's abrupt dismissal of FBI Director James Comey. Tensions surrounding North Korea also kept underlying sentiment cautious. Chinese shares ended lower after inflation data painted a mixed picture of the economy. Data published by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China's inflation accelerated to a 3-month high in April, while factory gate inflation eased on weakening commodity prices. Meanwhile, Japanese shares ended marginally higher, shrugging off concerns surrounding regional security and political developments in the US. The yen weakened against the dollar, helping lift exporters’ shares. Markets in Malaysia and Singapore were closed in observance of Vesak Day.