Benchmarks make buoyant opening ahead of RBI meet

Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading in fine fettle in early deals amid rate cut optimism. Market participants expects the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut rates by 25 bps on falling inflation in the coming policy meet, which will start tomorrow. Meanwhile, ahead of the next monetary policy review, Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel on Friday called on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and is believed to have discussed various macro-economic issues. Traders also took some encouragement with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement, who underlining the government’s push on reforms has said that in the last three years, the prime minister has been forcing one or two important changes. India has to become a country where it is easy to do business and the businesses are done in the most ethical way.

On the global front, Asian markets exhibiting mixed trend at this point of time as traders opted to book some profit off the table. The US markets made a mixed closing in a negative reaction to the latest batch of earnings news.

Back home, stocks related to oil space edged higher, as the union minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that centre is planning to set up petrochemical clusters in eastern, western and southern India, to spur growth of the sector amid increasing demand. Meanwhile, the market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was strong, with 1,160 shares gaining and 767 shares declining, while a total of 75 shares were unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32395.13, up by 85.25 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 32324.45 and 32451.72. There were 15 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.12%, while Small cap index was up by 0.20%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.62%, Metal up by 1.22%, Oil & Gas up by 1.00%, Energy up by 0.94% and Consumer Durables was up by 0.83%, while Healthcare down by 0.81%, FMCG down by 0.66%, Telecom down by 0.51%, Realty down by 0.21% and TECK was down by 0.10% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.10%, Tata Steel up by 2.43%, ONGC up by 2.37%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.06% and ICICI Bank up by 1.79%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.83%, Sun Pharma down by 1.71%, ITC down by 1.32%, Lupin down by 1.28% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.94% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, highlighting the initial success of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that it was not an “easy reform to implement” but it has evoked “great” public support with the government deciding not to blink in the face of opposition to the new taxation measure. He said that “We have today reached a stage of history where there is a great amount of popular support behind reforms because people have become restless. They are not willing to be satisfied with a situation where in India cannot reach up to its potential.”

Pitching the new taxation law as a key economic reform in post-independent India, Finance minister also said the Centre was aware of several issues being raised, adding that he was “conscious” of the difficulties, and therefore, constant interactions were happening on GST.

Jaitley further underlining the government’s push on reforms said that in the last three years, the prime minister has been forcing one or two important changes. India has to become a country where it is easy to do business and the businesses are done in the most ethical way.

He pointed that following the rollout of GST, the number of registrants originally paying taxes like VAT, Excise and Service Tax, which was around Rs 80 lakh, was growing and this gave the government a “slight comfort level”.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10041.60, up by 27.10 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 10016.95 and 10048.90. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining, while one stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 2.88%, ONGC up by 2.46%, Tata Steel up by 2.37%, ICICI Bank up by 1.60% and Vedanta up by 1.49%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.12%, Sun Pharma down by 1.85%, Lupin down by 1.54%, ITC down by 1.34% and Bajaj Auto down by 1.15% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Jakarta Composite rose 6.69 points or 0.11% to 5,837.72, Shanghai Composite increased 19 points or 0.58% to 3,272.24 and Hang Seng was up by 200.63 points or 0.74% to 27,180.02.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted decreased 30.83 points or 0.3% to 10,392.22, Nikkei 225 slipped 12.04 points or 0.06% to 19,947.80, KOSPI Index shed 7.23 points or 0.3% to 2,393.76 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.14 points or 0.01% to 1,766.94.