Markets remain firm in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks remained buoyant in late morning session, on continued buying by domestic institutional investors and encouraging quarterly numbers from a few blue-chip companies. The rally was also driven by buying in Capital Goods, Basic Materials and IT stocks. Investors’ sentiments remained optimistic amid rate cut optimism. Markets expect the RBI to cut interest rates on falling inflation in the coming RBI policy meet, which will start tomorrow. Some support also came with report that overseas investors have pumped a staggering USD 4 billion into the Indian capital market this month, primarily due to better prospects of economic growth as compared to other emerging markets. Investors also took 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 were trading in red after geopolitical tensions in Korean peninsula ramped up and markets digested the release of weaker than expected China PMI data. Back home, in scrip specific development, Balkrishna Industries traded higher after the company received an approval for setting up of a Carbon Black project at its Bhuj Plant with an Initial annual capacity of 60000 MTs at an estimated capital outlay of Rs 150 crore. The board of directors at its meeting held on July 29, 2017 has approved for the same.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32425.09, up by 115.21 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 32324.45 and 32452.42. There were 17 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.04%, while Small cap index was up by 0.15%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.78%, Capital Goods up by 1.50%, Basic Materials up by 0.98%, IT up by 0.84% and Industrials up by 0.73%, while Healthcare down by 1.16%, Telecom down by 0.66% and FMCG down by 0.59% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.24%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.82%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.59%, ONGC up by 2.28% and Infosys up by 1.65%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.74%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 2.69%, Lupin down by 1.42%, HDFC down by 1.19% and ITC down by 1.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, newly appointed Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan has said that the government has already taken up the job of framing the new national telecom policy and would bring out the draft by the end of December. She also said that the Department of Telecom (DoT) is in the process of setting up working groups in order to look into different aspects of the policy.

Last week, DoT had commenced the consultation process by meeting operators, infrastructure providers, industry associations and standards bodies. The department is in the middle of formulating a new telecom policy that will broadly focus on areas such as Internet for all, next-generation technologies (like 5G and Internet of Things), skill development and security, among others. In addition, DoT is planning to go for a wide consultation and outreach before finalising the new policy and expects to have it in place by March 2018.

The new policy formulation comes at a time when the sector is facing financial crisis as both large and small operators have come under severe pressure post the entry of aggressive newcomer Reliance Jio and the subsequent free data and voice offerings. The department will soon write to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) seeking inputs for the new telecom policy.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10037.65, up by 23.15 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 10016.95 and 10048.90. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.32%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.60%, ONGC up by 2.06%, Vedanta up by 1.98% and Infosys up by 1.97%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 3.00%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 2.88%, Yes Bank down by 1.94%, Lupin down by 1.69% and Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 1.56% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted decreased 31.75 points or 0.3% to 10,391.30, Nikkei 225 decreased 2.18 points or 0.01% to 19,957.66, KOSPI Index decreased 1.85 points or 0.08% to 2,399.14, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 0.83 points or 0.05% to 1,766.25 and Jakarta Composite decreased 0.73 points or 0.01% to 5,830.30.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 18.26 points or 0.56% to 3,271.50 and Hang Seng increased 269.7 points or 1% to 27,249.09.