Benchmarks trade in green; Metals, Basic Materials lead

Indian equity benchmarks continued their trade in green in late morning session, on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The rupee opened higher against dollar on account of selling of American currency by banks and exporters. Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth Rs 358.76 crore on Thursday with gross purchases and gross sales of Rs 5950.18 crore and Rs 5591.42 crore, respectively. Traders took support after domestic ratings agency enlightened that it expects GDP growth to rise marginally to 7.1 percent for the fourth quarter on a gradual remonetisation, up from the preceding quarter’s 7 percent. However, when compared on a year-on-year basis, it will be far slower than the 8.4 percent registered in January-March 2016. Separately, sentiments remained on upbeat mood with private weather forecaster Skymet’s statement that the increase in pre-monsoon showers across India is hinting at the arrival of monsoon 2017, which is not very far away. The weather forecasting agency predicted that monsoon will make an onset over Kerala by May 29, with a margin of error of three days. Some support also came on reports that India remains number one in the world as the world’s topmost green-field FDI investment destination for the second consecutive year. India attracted $62.3 billion in 2016, putting China and the US in second and third place respectively, as far as FDI inflows were concerned last year.

Traders were seen piling up position in Metal, Basic Materials and Telecom stocks, while selling was witnessed in Oil & Gas, PSU and Energy stocks. Select Information Technology (IT) stock were trading in green after states in the US are looking to roll out the red carpet for Indian IT services companies, with Indiana offering as much as $31 million in incentives to Infosys as it looks to drum up jobs in the sector. The state plans to woo more Indian IT companies, which need to boost local hires given the political sensitivity over H-1B visas and immigration under President Donald Trump. In scrip specific development, Manappuram Finance, gold loan NBFC, was trading in green on reporting a 54% increase in net profit at Rs 200.57 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2017. It had earned a net profit of Rs 130.70 crore in the same period a year ago. Cipla was trading in red after the company registered a consolidated net loss of 61.79 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2017 as against net loss of Rs 92.83 in the corresponding quarter last year.

On the global front, Asian shares were trading mostly in red, with Tokyo eased as commodity-dependent shares fell on a stronger dollar, which makes imports priced in greenbacks more expensive. South Korea’s KOSPI is trading at an all-time high in its sixth consecutive session of gains. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 9,500 and 30,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1602:571, while 101 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 30888.42, up by 138.39 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 30745.57 and 30897.21. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.26%, while Small cap index was up by 1.36%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.25%, Basic Materials up by 1.96%, Telecom up by 1.79%, Industrials up by 1.25% and Power up by 1.24%, while, Oil & Gas down by 0.68%, PSU down by 0.08% and Energy down by 0.05% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.92%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.71%, Asian Paints up by 2.31%, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone up by 1.83% and Power Grid up by 1.79%.

On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.80%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.80%, SBI down by 0.71%, TCS down by 0.67% and Sun Pharma down by 0.44% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India maintained its number one position of being world’s top most greenfield FDI investment destination for the second year in a row, attracting $62.3 billion in 2016. According to the report from FDI Intelligence, a division of Financial Times, India has overtaken the US and China as far as FDI inflows were concerned in the previous year. It also noted that during 2016, FDI by capital investment saw a growth of 2 percent to $62.3 billion in 809 projects in India.

The report has pointed that the global investment landscape has changed considerably in the last year as FDI gravitated to locations experiencing the strongest economic growth, while locations in recession or facing high levels of uncertainty saw major declines. It further highlighted that during 2016, greenfield FDI continued to increase worldwide, with capital investment increasing by more than 6 percent to $776.2 billion, its highest since 2011, alongside an increase in job creation by 5 percent to 2.02 million. However, it noted that the number of FDI projects declined 3 percent to 12,644.

As per the report, China has outpaced the US to become the second biggest country for FDI by capital investment, recording $59 billion of announced FDI, compared with $48 billion-worth in the US. Globally, the real estate sector has claimed the top spot for capital investment, with $157.5 billion of announced FDI recorded in 2016, following an increase of 58 percent. In terms of value coal and natural gas seen an inflow of $121 billion, followed by alternate and renewable energy at $77 billion.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9543.60, up by 33.85 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 9495.40 and 9549.95. There were 34 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 5.06%, Hindalco up by 4.07%, Vedanta up by 2.86%, Asian Paints up by 2.32% and Bharti Airtel up by 2.32%.

On the flip side, Indian Oil Corporation down by 4.49%, BPCL down by 2.99%, Cipla down by 2.71%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.86% and TCS down by 0.86% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 103.97 points or 0.52% to 19,709.16, Taiwan Weighted decreased 16.98 points or 0.17% to 10,091.51, Hang Seng decreased 7.59 points or 0.03% to 25,623.19 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 0.66 points or 0.04% to 1,773.30.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite increased 1.3 points or 0.04% to 3,109.13, Jakarta Composite increased 11.74 points or 0.21% to 5,715.17 and KOSPI Index increased 14.54 points or 0.62% to 2,357.47.