Markets trade in narrow range; IT leads

Indian bourses traded in a narrow range in late morning session, with Sensex adding 75 points and Nifty adding 31 points to regain its 9800 level. Traders took some support with the private report that banks’ revenues are likely to grow at around 10% year-on-year (y-o-y). The report further said that net interest income is also seen growing at a similar pace. Some support also came from the report that the government may impose countervailing duty of 18.95 per cent on imports of certain kind of flat steel products from China to guard domestic players from cheap imports. Furthermore, India's garment exports are expected to register a 15-18 per cent growth in FY 18 as against USD 17 billion registered last year. On the sectoral front, stocks of sugar companies edged higher after the government increased import duty on sugar to 50 per cent in order to curb dumping of the commodity in India as international prices fell.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, as investors hold on to their big bets ahead of the earnings season in the US. However, there was caution in Asia ahead of scheduled appearances by US Federal Reserve officials this week. Back home, in scrip specific development, Lupin traded higher after the company entered into collaboration with the American Academy of Ophthalmology that would seek to expand and enhance continuing ophthalmic education in India. The effort is expected to reach 3,000 ophthalmologists in the country.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31790.65, up by 75.01 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 31744.27 and 31842.37. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.08%, while Small cap index was up by 0.26%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.47%, TECK up by 0.98%, Auto up by 0.76%, Industrials up by 0.61% and Basic Materials up by 0.59%, while Telecom down by 0.66%, Realty down by 0.34%, Oil & Gas down by 0.18%, Consumer Durables down by 0.17% and FMCG down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.62%, Infosys up by 2.33%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.07%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.70% and NTPC up by 1.65%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 1.49%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.09%, Coal India down by 0.87%, ONGC down by 0.86% and Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.79% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the power ministry has said that there is no shortage of power and India’s generation resource is adequate to meet the growing demand of consumers who are having access to electricity. During 2013-14, demand-supply gap both in terms of energy and peak stood at 4.2 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively. While, in the financial year 2016-17, this has fell to an all-time low of 0.7 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively. Further, this gap is on account of factors other than inadequacy of power in the country.

The energy actually used by all the consumers including industries, grew at an even higher rate. The gross generation in the country, which reflects the consumption by consumers (other than about 0.2% growth rate of export to Bangladesh and Nepal), surged to 1,242 billion units (BUs) in 2016-17 from 1,020 BUs in 2013-14, showing a CAGR of 6.8 percent. The reason that there is a higher growth in gross generation, vis-à-vis energy supplied by State Distribution Utilities, is that many industries are now purchasing power through open access from IPPs without contracts with the states. Therefore, the consumption of these industries has reduced from the state utilities and increased through open access, which is reflected as generation increase from IPPs without contracts.

During the period 2012-17, generation capacity addition target from conventional sources was 99,209.47 MW as against a target of 88,537 MW, over-achieving the same by 112 percent. Besides, conventional generation capacity addition achieved in the past three years (2014-15, 2015-16 & 2016-17) has been 60,752.6 MW, which is about 61 percent of the total capacity addition achieved during this period. In 2015-16, conventional generation capacity addition achieved was 23,976.6 MW which is the largest ever capacity addition in a single year.

Moreover, installed capacity of renewable energy in India as on March 31, 2014 was 31,692.14 MW. As on March 31, 2017 India has achieved an installed capacity of 57,260.2 MW of renewable energy sources showing a rise of 80 percent during 2014 -2017. The quantum of energy not supplied has reduced substantially from 42.4 BU in 2013-14 to 7.6 BU in 2016-17, a reduction of 82 percent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9801.65, up by 30.60 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 9783.75 and 9814.60. There were 31 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.79%, Infosys up by 2.59%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.14%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.93% and NTPC up by 1.84%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 1.49%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.16%, ONGC down by 0.99%, Bank of Baroda down by 0.96% and Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.75% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased 3.64 points or 0.11% to 3,216.27, KOSPI Index increased 12.39 points or 0.52% to 2,394.49, Taiwan Weighted increased 106.2 points or 1.03% to 10,396.11, Nikkei 225 increased 113.44 points or 0.56% to 20,194.42 and Hang Seng increased 378.67 points or 1.48% to 25,878.73.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 0.6 points or 0.01% to 5,770.90 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 0.47 points or 0.03% to 1,756.66.