Markets maintain upbeat trend in late afternoon session

Aided by forecast of a normal monsoon, Indian equity benchmarks maintained their upbeat trend in late afternoon session, despite weak opening in European markets. The India Meteorological Department (IMD), the country's national weather forecaster, said that the country is likely to receive above average monsoon rainfall this year and noted that it could reach 100 per cent of the long period average (LPA) instead of 96 percent of the LPA as predicted in its earlier forecast on April 18, 2017. Sentiments also got a boost after data showed that foreign funds, which were net sellers on the Indian bourses for the past few sessions, made fresh purchases in Tuesday’s trade. Some support also came 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. Traders took note of Steel Secretary Arun Sharma’s statement that India is drafting a land-for-assets policy among a raft of measures aimed at attracting foreign investment into the world's third largest steel producing market.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red as investors focused on fresh corporate earnings and the dollar pared recent gains amid a rise in political tensions. Asian markets were trading mixed. Back home, in scrip specific development, Power Grid Corporation of India traded higher after the company received unified licence with national long-distance and internet service provider authorisation to provide telecom services. The power transmission utility provides telecom towers and optical-fibre cable infrastructure (for internet services) to service providers and other firms for commercial use. This is a separate segment of revenue for the company.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 30170.14, up by 236.89 points or 0.79% after trading in a range of 29987.44 and 30213.72. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.65%, while Small cap index was higher by 0.70%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 3.00%, FMCG up by 1.68%, Auto up by 1.14%, Healthcare up by 0.98% and Energy up by 0.96%, while IT down by 0.68%, Realty down by 0.28%, PSU down by 0.06% and TECK down by 0.04% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 5.24%, Hindustan Unilever up by 3.95%, HDFC up by 2.53%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.29% and Reliance Industries up by 1.72%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.47%, TCS down by 1.22%, Infosys down by 0.76%, Asian Paints down by 0.70% and GAIL India down by 0.57% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, reiterating that the government has no plans to tax agricultural income, including that of prosperous farmers, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the a rich farmer is a very rare institution and not the norm and pointed that the farm sector is in distress and therefore there was no question of taxing agricultural income.

While noting that farmers should be helped and not taxed, Jaitley said that the government is very clear on this and further clarified that the Central government has no power to impose tax on agricultural income as it is the power of state governments, mentioning that none of the states is going to do it.

Earlier, NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy had stated that farmers should be liable to pay tax on their incomes at par with other citizens after seasonal fluctuations are adjusted. However, the NITI Aayog had clarified that Bibek Debroy’s suggestions on taxing farm income  is neither the view of the Aayog nor is such a recommendation made anywhere in the Draft Action Agenda document as circulated to the Governing Council at the meeting on April 23, 2017.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9381.60, up by 64.75 points or 0.69% after trading in a range of 9336.00 and 9392.65. There were 32 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 5.20%, Hindustan Unilever up by 3.95%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 3.84%, Eicher Motors up by 2.73% and HDFC up by 2.46%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 2.04%, Wipro down by 1.79%, TCS down by 1.15%, ACC down by 1.13% and HCL Tech. down by 1.13% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Jakarta Composite decreased 43.96 points or 0.77% to 5,653.10, Shanghai Composite decreased 27.74 points or 0.9% to 3,052.79 and KOSPI Index decreased 22.64 points or 0.99% to 2,270.12. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted increased 52.84 points or 0.53% to 9,968.32, Nikkei 225 increased 57.09 points or 0.29% to 19,900.09 and Hang Seng increased 126.39 points or 0.51% to 25,015.42.

All European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 26.69 points or 0.21% to 12,722.43, France’s CAC slipped 16.47 points or 0.31% to 5,381.54 and UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 8.41 points or 0.11% to 7,333.80.