Markets extend euphoria, trade near day’s high

Markets maintaining their euphoria are trading near the day’s high, while the regional peers trading in green are supporting the sentiments; it is the domestic development from the monsoon front that has fuelled the markets to fresh highs. Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted a ‘normal’ monsoon this calendar and expects 100 per cent rainfall instead of 96 per cent as predicted earlier. The telecom space 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, was trading jubilantly as one of the top performer. The infrastructure space too was buzzing 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. Also, with an aim to create policies on employment based on credible data, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set up a task force under the chairmanship of the Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Dr Arvind Panagriya.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 30183.26, up by 250.01 points or 0.84% after trading in a range of 29987.44 and 30197.66. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were going neck in neck with the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.91%, while Small cap index was higher by 0.87%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.76%, Telecom up by 1.49%, Healthcare up by 1.08%, Auto up by 1.08%, Power up by 0.96%, while, Realty down by 0.23%, and IT down by 0.13% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 4.14%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.78%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.21%, HDFC up by 2.03% and Cipla up by 1.52%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 0.86%, TCS down by 0.73%, ICICI Bank down by 0.63%, Asian Paints down by 0.53% and GAIL India down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, going a step further on the path of digital transactions and cheque payments, the government is planning to amend the Negotiable Instruments Act (NIA) for faster decision in cheque bounce cases. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had made an announcement to this effect in the Budget 2016-17 and the amendments will be tabled in the Monsoon Session of the Parliament.

The Department of Financial Services is in process of getting Cabinet approval for the amendments, ensuring that cheque bounce cases are settled speedily. In proposed amendments, the government is expected to propose a minimum deposit of 20 per cent of the contested amount by an offender at the trail court stage.  At present, there is no mandatory deposit by a defaulter while contesting the charges in any trial court or raising an appeal before the appellate court.

In 2015, Parliament passed amendment to the Negotiable Instrument Act providing for filing of cheque bounce cases at the place where a cheque is presented for clearance and not the place of issue and these amendments had implications for over 18 lakh cheque bounce cases pending in various courts, of which about 38,000 are with the high courts.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9385.15, up by 68.30 points or 0.73% after trading in a range of 9336.00 and 9390.15. There were 38 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 4.15%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 3.58%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.97%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.10% and HDFC up by 2.00%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 1.22%, Wipro down by 1.11%, Grasim Industries down by 1.04%, HCL Tech. down by 0.76% and Indian Oil Corp. down by 0.74% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Shanghai Composite was up by 8.11 points or 0.26% to 3,088.63, Taiwan Weighted was higher by 29.32 points or 0.3% to 9,944.80, Nikkei 225 increased by 44.1 points or 0.22% to 19,887.10 and Hang Seng surged by 199.24 points or 0.8% to 25,088.27.

On the other hand KOSPI Index decreased 14.62 points or 0.64% to 2,278.14 and Jakarta Composite declined by 13.73 points or 0.24% to 5,683.33.