Markets soar to hit intraday highs; Nifty nears 9700 mark

Indian equity benchmarks continued to move northward in late afternoon session to hit the intraday highs, with the Sensex gaining over 200 points, while the Nifty inching towards 9700 mark. Hopes of positive quarterly earnings and smooth roll-out of the goods and services tax (GST) helped to lift the sentiments. Besides, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that although the government had factored in a huge amount of disruption, the switchover to GST has been smoother than anticipated and noted that implementation of new tax regime along with last year’s demonetization move would increase the tax base ratio over a period of time. Investors also took encouragement with BMI Research’s latest report that Indian economy is expected to recover in the coming quarters and the country is expected to clock a real GDP growth of 6.9% in this financial year. Some support also came with the report that India will be the base to the economic pole of global growth over the coming decade, remaining ahead of China. Meanwhile, the revenue of telecom operators from services dipped by about 15% to Rs 40,831 crore in the January-March quarter this year.

On the global front, European markets were trading mixed as investors digested the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting and monitored geopolitical events. Asian markets were trading in red. Back home, in scrip specific development, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services traded higher on plan to raise Rs 2000 crore via NCDs.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31452.56, up by 207.00 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 31264.86 and 31453.91. There were 21 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.63%, while Small cap index was up by 0.74%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.06%, Telecom up by 1.30%, PSU up by 1.16%, FMCG up by 0.96% and Bankex up by 0.79%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.33% and Utilities down by 0.05% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 2.55%, ITC up by 1.90%, Coal India up by 1.86%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.51% and Tata Motors up by 1.27%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.45%, Sun Pharma down by 0.93%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.44%, Axis Bank down by 0.37% and TCS down by 0.29% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University, in its latest report on ‘global growth projections’, mentioned India of remaining ahead of China in the economic pole of global growth over the past few years and has said that the country is likely to continue this trend over the coming decade owing to the government’s rapid growth prospects.

The report further said that India along with Uganda top the list of the fastest growing economies to 2025, at 7.7 percent annually. The CID report further listed the country’s efforts towards growth, saying that India has diversified its export base by including more complex sectors, such as chemicals, vehicles & certain electronics and going forward, the country is well positioned to continue diversifying into new areas given the capabilities accumulated to date.

As per report, while the major oil economies are experiencing the pitfalls of their reliance on one resource, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam have accumulated new capabilities that allow for more diverse and more complex production, which may lead to the faster growth in the coming years. Though, the report also warned of a continued slowdown in global growth over the coming decade.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9695.80, up by 58.20 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 9639.95 and 9696.95. There were 35 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 3.48%, SBI up by 2.58%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.18%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.11% and Coal India up by 1.92%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.49%, Sun Pharma down by 1.02%, Hindalco down by 0.91%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 0.65% and Eicher Motors down by 0.45% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 87.57 points or 0.44% to 19,994.06, Hang Seng decreased 56.75 points or 0.22% to 25,465.22, Taiwan Weighted decreased 36.59 points or 0.35% to 10,368.20, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 0.92 points or 0.05% to 1,767.24 and KOSPI Index decreased 0.54 points or 0.02% to 2,387.81. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 5.31 points or 0.17% to 3,212.44 and Jakarta Composite increased 22.23 points or 0.38% to 5,847.29.

European markets were trading mixed; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 3.04 points or 0.04% to 7,370.64 and Germany’s DAX increased 5.69 points or 0.05% to 12,459.37. On the flip side, France’s CAC decreased 8.76 points or 0.17% to 5,171.34.