Benchmarks march towards new all time highs; Sensex surpasses 31,400 mark

Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Thursday, with frontline indices marching towards their fresh all time highs tracking positive trend seen in Asian markets after oil prices climbed from their 10-month lows, while investors also took cues from the minutes of Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s June policy meeting. Traders shrugged off reports that markets regulator SEBI tightened P-Note norms by levying a fee of $1,000 on each instrument and barring their issuance for speculative purposes to check any misuse for channelising black money. Meanwhile, in order to ensure preparedness for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) roll-out from July 1, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology launched a dedicated webpage for facilitating taxpayers with regard to addressing issues related to IT services and electronic goods.

Buying in banking counters too aided sentiments, as Banks led by State Bank of India marking a significant move in the cleanup bad loans, will decide today the fate of three large defaulters-Essar Steel, Bhushan Steel and Electrosteel Steels which constitute nearly half of the loans of the top 12 defaulters identified by the Reserve Bank of India. Meanwhile, the market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was strong, with 1304 shares gaining and 604 shares declining, while a total of 99 shares were unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31420.52, up by 136.88 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 31336.96 and 31422.55. There were 23 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.47%, while Small cap index was up by 0.57%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.81%, Consumer Disc up by 0.71%, Healthcare up by 0.70%, Basic Materials up by 0.59% and Industrials was up by 0.55%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.41%, FMCG down by 0.24% and PSU down by 0.05% were the few losing indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 1.46%, HDFC up by 1.31%, Sun Pharma up by 1.22%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.12% and Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.00%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.63%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.57%, Lupin down by 1.08%, Wipro down by 0.88% and Coal India down by 0.62% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after slipping to historic-lows, scheduled commercial bank credit seems to be finally looking to be recovering and were up for the fortnight ended June 9, 2017. According to latest data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), banks’ credit growth inched up to 6.02%. In volume terms, it grew from Rs 72,22,939 crore as on June 10, 2016 to Rs 76,58,212 as on June 10, 2017, slightly higher than the previous fortnight ended May 26, when advances grew over 5.08% with an outstanding of Rs 75,93,546 crore.

For several quarters, credit growth has been flat, as both corporate and banks are mired in the twin balance sheet problem and due to over-leverage, borrowing and lending has come to a naught. In the fiscal ended March 31, 2017, bank credit growth plunged to a multi-year low of 5.08% with an outstanding loan book of Rs 78.81 lakh crore as against Rs 75.01 lakh crore as on April 1, 2016.

As per the data, in the reporting fortnight, bank deposits grew by 11.19% to Rs 105,77,947 crore from Rs 95,13,148 crore in the fortnight ended June 10, 2016. Deposits in the fortnight ending on May 26 grew by 10.9% to Rs 105,51,182 crore from Rs 95,14,087 crore in the period ended May 27, 2016.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9667.80, up by 34.20 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 9642.35 and 9672.10. There were 36 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Aurobindo Pharma up by 1.96%, Eicher Motors up by 1.47%, Sun Pharma up by 1.23%, HDFC up by 1.21% and Reliance Industries up by 1.19%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 2.40%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.64%, ONGC down by 1.55%, BPCL down by 1.25% and Lupin down by 1.16% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 1.26 points or 0.07% to 1,776.83, KOSPI Index gained 5.41 points or 0.23% to 2,362.94, Shanghai Composite increased 23.89 points or 0.76% to 3,180.10, Nikkei 225 jumped 31.18 points or 0.15% to 20,169.97, Taiwan Weighted added 45.54 points or 0.44% to 10,395.26 and Hang Seng was up by 144.71 points or 0.56% to 25,839.29.

 On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 5.88 points or 0.1% to 5,812.68.