Benchmarks trade jubilantly in early deals; Nifty reclaims 9,950 mark

Indian equity benchmarks are trading jubilantly in early deals on Friday amid firm global cues. On the domestic front, traders shrugged off weak Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers which came at a dismal 5.70 per cent against 7.90 per cent in the same quarter last year and a 13 quarter lowest level. According to data released by the government, quarterly GVA at basic prices for Q1FY18 from manufacturing sector grew by 1.2 per cent as compared to the growth of 10.7 per cent in Q1FY17. Moreover, industrial growth came in at around 1.60 per cent in Q1FY18 against 7.40 per cent in Q1FY17. Investors also paid no heed to eight core sectors which slowed down to 2.4 per cent in July. The contraction was mainly seen in output of crude oil, refinery products, fertiliser and cement. Traders took some encouragement with Finance Minster Arun Jaitley attributing the lower GDP numbers to pre-GST destocking of goods and expressed hope that the economy will grow at 7 percent, saying manufacturing has bottomed out.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green at this point of time, though there is sense of cautiousness ahead of the US jobs data to take clues on the Federal Reserve’s policy-tightening path. The US markets moved further high in the last session with the tech-heavy Nasdaq reaching a new record closing high.

Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too participated strongly in the rally. Meanwhile, the market breadth remained in favor of advances, as there were 1,352 shares on the gaining side against 458 shares on the losing side while 88 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31864.18, up by 133.69 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 31707.27 and 31864.63. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index, while one stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.87%, while Small cap index was up by 0.84%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.57%, Healthcare up by 1.99%, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services up by 0.98%, Auto up by 0.93% and Industrials up by 0.87%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 7.50%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.16%, Lupin up by 2.09%, Sun Pharma up by 1.80% and Asian Paints up by 1.61%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.47%, HDFC down by 0.90%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.48%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.47% and Wipro down by 0.37% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after the government expressed confidence of meeting 3.2% fiscal deficit target for 2017-18, despite the low dividends from the Reserve Bank of India and muted proceeds from stake sales in public sector enterprises till now, the data of Controller General of Accounts (CGA) has revealed that India's fiscal deficit at July- end touched 92.4 percent of the budget target, as compared to 73.7 percent in the same period of the target of financial year 2016-17, mainly because of front loading of expenditure by various government departments. In April-July this year, the Centre released about Rs 1.5 lakh crore in food, fertiliser and fuel subsidies, a rise of 42 per cent YoY. The April-July period of this year also saw a 33 per cent YoY rise in capex at Rs 95,126 crore, nearly 40 per cent of which was defence-related.

As per the CGA data, government's revenue receipts improved at Rs 2.91 lakh crore during April-July period, which works out to be 19.2 percent of the target of Rs 15.15 lakh crore for the whole year, compared to revenue reciepits comprising taxes and other items of 18.6 percent of the target in the same period last year. It further stated that government's expenditure had been increasing on sequential basis and totalled Rs 8.08 lakh crore at July-end or 37.7 percent of the budget estimates.

The revenue expenditure of the government, the difference between revenue expenditure and revenue receipts, widened to 131.2 percent of the budget estimates, compared with 93 percent in the April-July period of the last fiscal. For 2017-18, the government aims to bring down the fiscal deficit to 3.2% of the GDP, after it met the it  met the deficit target of 3.5 % of the GDP in the last fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9953.00, up by 35.10 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 9909.85 and 9958.05. There were 39 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 7.66%, Lupin up by 2.41%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 2.34%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.05% and GAIL India up by 1.67%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.57%, HDFC down by 0.98%, Power Grid down by 0.68%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.64% and Indian Oil Corporation down by 0.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 rose 4.08 points or 0.02% to 19,650.32, Taiwan Weighted increased 16.57 points or 0.16% to 10,602.35, Shanghai Composite added 19.13 points or 0.57% to 3,379.94 and Hang Seng was up by 87.21 points or 0.31% to 28,057.51.

On the flip side, KOSPI Index was down by 0.65 points or 0.03% to 2,362.54.