Markets touch fresh record highs in late afternoon session

Continuing their record-setting spree, Indian equity benchmarks extended gains in late afternoon session, to touch fresh record highs, as investors remained optimistic about the prospects of a good monsoon. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said that monsoon rains are expected to arrive on the southern Kerala coast on 30 May, two days ahead of schedule. It also said India looks likely to receive higher monsoon rainfall than previously forecast as concern over the El Nino weather condition has eased. Sentiments remained upbeat with the report that India’s exports grew by 19.77 per cent to $24.63 billion in April on account of robust performance by sectors like petroleum, textiles, engineering goods as well as gems and jewellery. Imports too jumped 49.07 per cent to $37.88 billion last month from $25.4 billion in April 2016. Some support also came with the private report stating that the Indian economy is entering a productive growth phase and real GDP growth is likely to rise to 7.9 percent by December 2017 from the current run rate of 7 percent, driven by favourable external demand, improving corporate balance sheets and private capex recovery.

On the global front, European markets were trading mixed, as investors continued to weigh global security concerns and digested the latest batch of corporate earnings. Asian markets were trading mostly in red. Back home, in scrip specific development, Maruti Suzuki India jumped higher after the company launched the new version of its popular Dzire compact sedan, in an attempt to revive growth in a segment that the car already dominates.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 30545.59, up by 223.47 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 30363.37 and 30551.00. There were 22 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.30%, while Small cap index was up by 0.44%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.13%, TECK up by 0.88%, FMCG up by 0.84%, Auto up by 0.79% and PSU up by 0.75%, while Metal down by 0.08% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.01%, TCS up by 2.28%, ITC up by 2.09%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 2.01% and SBI up by 1.96%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.01%, ONGC down by 0.96%, Asian Paints down by 0.68%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.53% and Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.48% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after introducing revised macroeconomic indicators of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Wholesale Price Index (WPI) by changing the base year for data computation to 2011-12 from 2004-05, chief statistician TCA Anant has said that upcoming gross domestic product (GDP) numbers which are scheduled to release on May 31 will include the impact of revised data series for IIP & WPI.

Ananat said that GDP is supposed to reflect accurately the value added as we can estimate using old data that is available. Noting that these changes in base year of data series are call for a revision in GDP numbers, Anant said that new series of numbers will be incorporated to GDP compilation and added that the actual implications on the incorporation will be known only when the GDP data gets released.

The chief statistician said that the next revision in the indices of all economic indicators will coincide. “All of these indices will be revised hopefully coincidentally with the national accounts revision, which will probably be for 2017-18'. The government revised the base year of IIP and WPI to a new base year of 2011-12 from 2004-05 to make the indices a better measure of the economic activity. Under WPI series, it has also added a new WPI food index to capture the rate of inflation in food items and apart from a new base year, the revision also includes change in the basket of commodities and assigning of new weights.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9498.15, up by 52.75 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 9456.35 and 9501.50. There were 36 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.97%, ACC up by 2.84%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.57%, TCS up by 2.21% and Bosch up by 2.17%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.12%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.00%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.91%, Asian Paints down by 0.89% and ONGC down by 0.88% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 35.65 points or 0.14% to 25,335.94, Jakarta Composite decreased 22.57 points or 0.4% to 5,666.30, Taiwan Weighted decreased 5.33 points or 0.05% to 10,031.49 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 4.19 points or 0.24% to 1,774.46. On the flip side, KOSPI Index increased 4.68 points or 0.2% to 2,295.33, Shanghai Composite increased 22.74 points or 0.74% to 3,112.96 and Nikkei 225 increased 49.97 points or 0.25% to 19,919.82.

European markets were trading mixed; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 22.68 points or 0.3% to 7,477.05 and Germany’s DAX increased 7.96 points or 0.06% to 12,815.00. On the flip side, France’s CAC decreased 19.89 points or 0.37% to 5,397.51.