Firm trade prevails in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in late morning session, on account of buying in front line blue chip counters. The rupee opened higher against dollar on account of selling of American currency by banks and exporters amid sustain inflows by foreign institutional investors and firm Asian cues. Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth Rs 1,131.84 crore on Thursday with gross purchases and gross sales of Rs 16712.46 crore and Rs 15580.62 crore, respectively. Traders were taking support from NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement that India will regain the crown of the fastest growing major economy, overtaking China, as early as the first quarter of 2017-18. He said that India, on an annual basis, is ahead of China and will regain the growth momentum soon on the back of host of reforms initiated by the Modi government in the last three years. Also, Moody’s Investors Service has said that India’s key reforms, including the impending goods and services tax and resolution of sticky loans may improve the country’s credit profile. Meanwhile, Chief Statistician T C A Anant said the impact assessment of notes ban on GDP growth by a section of analysts, who have pre-conceived notions about reality, is over stated and fallacious.

Traders were seen piling up position in Telecom, Healthcare and Auto stocks, while selling was witnessed in Metal, Capital Goods and Oil & Gas stocks. In scrip specific development, PNC Infratech was trading in red as the company’s net profit dips 77 per cent to Rs 33.74 crore during the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2017. It had posted a net profit after taxes, minority interest and share in profit/(loss) of associates of Rs 145.58 crore during the same period a year ago. Bajaj Auto was trading in red after reporting a fall of 10% in total sales to 313,756 units in May 2017 against 347,655 units in May 2016. The company’s total exports out of the above stood at 139,709 units, a fall of 3% as compared to 143,421 units sold in the corresponding month last year.

On the global front, Asian shares were trading mostly in green, with Shanghai bucking the trend. The offshore Chinese yuan hit its highest level since October on Thursday, a move traders believe was engineered by Chinese authorities as a show of strength to scare off yuan sellers after Moody’s downgraded China last week. South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index was higher as markets digested the release of revised Q1 GDP, which reflected the economy grew 2.9% on year compared to the 2.7%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 9,600 and 31,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1344:845, while 131 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31252.40, up by 114.81 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 31190.40 and 31332.56. 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 0.62%, while Small cap index was up by 0.36%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.83%, Healthcare up by 0.85%, Auto up by 0.74%, Consumer Durables up by 0.65% and Utilities up by 0.62%, while Metal down by 0.39%, Capital Goods down by 0.14% and Oil & Gas down by 0.08% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.31%, Cipla up by 2.23%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.71%, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone up by 1.69% and NTPC up by 1.56%.

On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.63%, Power Grid down by 1.01%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.91%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.83% and ICICI Bank down by 0.62% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya has expressed his hopes that India will regain the tag of world’s fastest growing major economy, outpacing China, as early as the first quarter (April-June) of 2017-18 on the back of host of reforms initiated by the Modi government in the last three years. He also said that the growth will rebound at a minimum of 7.5% in the current fiscal and accelerate further in the coming years.

Panagariya has said that India lost the tag to China in the fourth quarter of 2016-2017 with the GDP growth slipping to 6.1%. He also noted that China recorded a growth rate of 6.9% during the January-March quarter. He also said that India’s growth slipped to a three-year low of 7.1% in 2016-17, mainly on account of poor performance of manufacturing and services sectors. He noted that the GDP growth was at 8% in 2015-16 and 7.5% in the previous year. However, on yearly basis, he pointed that the country is ahead of China and will regain the growth momentum soon.

Vice Chairman has said that the declining trend was containing and note ban, at best, would have had only a marginal impact. He further said that the government has initiated a lot reform measures and expects that India's GDP will gradually accelerate to around 8% over the next two years. He added that FDI is now around $60 billion.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9646.35, up by 30.25 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 9637.45 and 9673.50. There were 32 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.42%, Cipla up by 2.18%, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone up by 1.85%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.77% and Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.65%.

On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.49%, Power Grid down by 1.06%, GAIL India down by 0.93%, Vedanta down by 0.89% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.86% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 9.65 points or 0.55% to 1,772.76, KOSPI Index increased 24.93 points or 1.06% to 2,369.54, Taiwan Weighted increased 33.83 points or 0.34% to 10,121.25, Hang Seng increased 93.04 points or 0.36% to 25,902.26 and Nikkei 225 increased 319.14 points or 1.61% to 20,179.17.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite decreased 9.83 points or 0.32% to 3,092.80 and Jakarta Composite decreased 6.49 points or 0.11% to 5,731.66.