Firm trade prevails in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks extended early gains and continued firm trade in the afternoon session, as retail inflation as well as industrial output data served to bolster expectations of a rate cut by the RBI. Data released late on Monday showed consumer inflation easing to 2.18% in May, helped by a drop in food prices - the lowest since India started publishing an economy-wide consumer price index in 2012. Besides, India’s industrial production grew by 3.1 percent in April 2017, as compared to 2.7 percent in the month of March 2017 and against a drop of 1.2 percent in February 2017. The growth was due to good performance of electricity, mining and manufacturing sectors. Some support also came with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was at a fairly advanced stage of preparing a list of borrowers from whom non-performing assets (NPAs) of public sector banks could be recovered under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. In scrip specific development, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries was up by over a percent with its one of the wholly owned subsidiaries receiving final approval from USFDA for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for generic version of Zetia, (ezetimibe) Tablets 10mg.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as investors brushed off a second straight session of big losses on Wall Street tech stocks a day before the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31205.89, up by 110.19 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 31075.80 and 31219.78. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.53%, while Small cap index was up by 0.88%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.97%, Realty up by 0.94%, Utilities up by 0.89%, Capital Goods up by 0.80% and Basic Materials up by 0.70%, while IT down by 0.48% and TECK down by 0.38% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 2.14%, HDFC up by 1.97%, Lupin up by 1.50%, Sun Pharma up by 1.22% and NTPC up by 1.14%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 0.93%, TCS down by 0.76%, Wipro down by 0.55%, Coal India down by 0.40% and ITC down by 0.38% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, emphasizing the frugal nature of India’s economic development and advantage of demographic dividend, Union minister Jayant Sinha has said that India is poised to become the entrepreneurial engine of the world and lead in innovation & economic development on the back of these two factors. He also mentioned that the country has made optimum use of resources and is extremely energy efficient which help the county to stand out in the world.

Union minister further pointing to the statistics about the county’s growing economy said that these statistics put India on par with many leading countries in the world, including the USA and China. He said that India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently growing at 7 to 8 per cent and if it is looked at in the context of purchasing power parity (PPP) India’s economy is worth 9.5 trillion dollars and in a decade it will contribute 11 trillion dollars to the world economy.

Sinha also said that the government’s continuous focus on minimum government and maximum governance has fostered a partnership between people and government and this will lead to broader, deeper and structured reforms.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9647.65, up by 31.25 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 9614.10 and 9648.85. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid up by 2.57%, Bank of Baroda up by 1.84%, HDFC up by 1.74%, Yes Bank up by 1.64% and Bosch up by 1.52%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.17%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.11%, Tata Motors down by 0.98%, Indian Oil Corp. down by 0.98% and HCL Tech. down by 0.87% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.54 points or 0.03% to 1,789.43, Jakarta Composite surged 11.51 points or 0.2% to 5,702.95, Shanghai Composite was up by 12.62 points or 0.4% to 3,152.50, KOSPI Index rose 16.83 points or 0.71% to 2,374.70, Taiwan Weighted increased 18.19 points or 0.18% to 10,128.15 and Hang Seng added 95.31 points or 0.37% to 25,803.35.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was down by 9.83 points or 0.05% to 19,898.75.