Jubilation continues on Dalal Street; Banks and Utilities take the lead

Buoyed by firm global cues, Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade jubilantly in early afternoon deals, with Nifty and Sensex retaining their crucial 10,100 and 32,600 levels respectively. Markets mood remained buoyant due to buying by domestic and foreign institutional investors coupled with better-than-expected earnings posted by some blue-chip companies. Some encouragement also came with news that retirement fund body the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation plans to pump in Rs 22,500 crore in exchange traded funds in 2017-18 following approval from the central board of trustees to increase the equity investment from 10 per cent to 15 per cent. There was also a rush to cover short positions ahead of the July expiry of derivatives which supported the upside. In scrip specific development, Yes Bank surged by over three and half percent after reporting  31.94% rise in its net profit at Rs 965.52 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 as compared to Rs 731.8 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, following the overnight gains on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged and said it will begin to unwind its bloated balance sheet 'relatively soon'. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32641.82, up by 259.36 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 32492.01 and 32672.66. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 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 0.36%, while Small cap index was up by 0.09%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.14%, Utilities up by 0.76%, Realty up by 0.65%, FMCG up by 0.50% and Consumer Disc up by 0.50%, while Telecom down by 1.38%, Healthcare down by 0.18%, Consumer Durables down by 0.13% and Industrials down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 4.56%, HDFC Bank up by 1.84%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.52%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.08% and Asian Paints up by 1.05%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.26%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.15%, Cipla down by 0.86%, Tata Motors down by 0.73% and Sun Pharma down by 0.66% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, retirement fund body Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is planning to invest Rs 22,500 crore in exchange traded funds (ETFs) in the financial year 2017-18, following the approval of its trustees to enhance investments in equity from 10 percent to 15 percent.

In the month of May, the EPFO’s apex decision making body, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) had approved the proposal to increase the investments in exchange traded funds from 10 percent to 15 percent of the investible deposits. Consequently the estimated investment in ETF for the current fiscal is around Rs 22,500 crore.

The EPFO has invested Rs 6577 crore in ETFs in 2015-16, while the figure for 2016-17 stood at Rs 14,982 crore. According to EPFO, the cumulative return on investment has been over 13 percent since it started investing up to 5 percent of its over Rs 1 lakh crore investible amount in ETFs in August 2015. In 2016-17, the proportion of these investments was raised to 10 percent which would further be raised to 15 percent for the current fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10104.25, up by 83.60 points or 0.83% after trading in a range of 10054.95 and 10114.85. There were 37 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC up by 4.56%, Yes Bank up by 4.09%, HDFC Bank up by 1.97%, ACC up by 1.91% and GAIL India up by 1.78%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.06%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.37%, Tata Motors down by 0.96%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 0.92% and Sun Pharma down by 0.82% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in green, Shanghai Composite increased 0.68 points or 0.02% to 3,248.36, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 4.55 points or 0.26% to 1,770.55, KOSPI Index surged 8.73 points or 0.36% to 2,443.24, Jakarta Composite rose 17.41 points or 0.3% to 5,817.61, Nikkei 225 soars 29.48 points or 0.15% to 20,079.64, Taiwan Weighted increased 89.26 points or 0.86% to 10,508.37 and Hang Seng added 210.94 points or 0.78% to 27,151.96