Jubilation continues on Dalal Street in afternoon deals

Indian markets continuing their jubilation were trading higher by over half a percent in afternoon deals, as sluggish inflation and industrial output numbers bolstered hopes of a rate cut in August. With a sustained dip in food prices, India’s retail inflation hit a record low of 1.54 percent in June 2017, down from 2.18% in May and 5.77% in June last year . At the same time, industrial output grew 1.7 percent in May on a yearly basis after expanding revised 2.8 percent in April. Some support also came with rating agency Fitch’s report that the global sovereign credit cycle is likely to turn less negative in 2017 as the global GDP growth forecast for 2017 and 2018 had improved. Moreover, the strength in rupee which extended its appreciation for the second consecutive session too was supporting the sentiments. In scrip specific development, Ramco Systems was up by over one and half percent after securing order from China Southern Airlines General Aviation (CSAGA), the second largest offshore helicopter operator in China for integrating its organization-wide maintenance and engineering operations.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, following the overnight gains on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's testimony before Congress indicated that the central bank will gradually tighten policy and also reduce the size of its $4.5 trillion balance sheet. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32037.13, up by 232.31 points or 0.73% after trading in a range of 31892.63 and 32054.33. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.46%, while Small cap index was up by 0.54%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.56%, Capital Goods up by 1.00%, Bankex up by 0.80%, Power up by 0.60% and Utilities up by 0.55%, while Metal down by 0.19%, Oil & Gas down by 0.14% and Energy down by 0.03% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 2.78%, ICICI Bank up by 1.43%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.32%, Axis Bank up by 1.27% and HDFC up by 1.16%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.47%, Tata Motors down by 0.57%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.23%, Coal India down by 0.22% and Infosys down by 0.20% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan has said that the ministry of communications will set up working groups and committees to start ground work on a new application-driven telecom policy (NTP) which is expected to come up in 2018. She also noted that the new policy will focus on areas such as Internet for all, next-generation technologies (like 5G and Internet of Things), skills development, and security, among others.

Sundararajan has said that the ministry will initiate the ‘widest possible public consultation’ involving the industry, and that a series of regional workshops have also been planned to get inputs from local stakeholders on the new policy. She also said that they will be in touch with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for their policy inputs also. In addition, she said that they will be working intensively on the policy over the next three to four months.

Further, the Telecom Secretary has said that the department is also considering setting up telecom Computer Emergency Response Team or CERT. She said “we intend to start work on its soon...as telecom industry grows and telecom network security becomes more important, we will need a dedicated organisation which can look into the aspects of that.” She added that the standards for telecom security and the modalities of emergency response mechanism would be part of the new architecture of the telecom CERT.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9876.80, up by 60.70 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 9853.45 and 9886.35. There were 37 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ITC up by 2.68%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 1.68%, Yes Bank up by 1.65%, ICICI Bank up by 1.57% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.32%. On the flip side, Indian Oil Corp. down by 2.97%, Bharti Infratel down by 2.50%, ONGC down by 1.60%, ACC down by 0.73% and Tata Motors down by 0.61% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Jakarta Composite increased 0.11 points or 0% to 5,819.24, Nikkei 225 surged 1.43 points or 0.01% to 20,099.81, KOSPI Index increased 17.72 points or 0.74% to 2,409.49, Shanghai Composite rose 18.43 points or 0.58% to 3,215.97, Taiwan Weighted was up by 39.47 points or 0.38% to 10,460.15 and Hang Seng added 256.79 points or 0.99% to 26,300.43.

On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.29 points or 0.07% to 1,755.95.