Benchmarks turn green in last leg of trade

Erasing all of their losses, Indian benchmarks entered into positive territory in late afternoon session amid mild recovery witnessed in Asian trade, while European markets made weak opening on Friday. Higher buying witnessed at IT, TECK, Energy and Oil & Gas counters supported the markets to get rid of lackluster trade. Adding some optimism, India and Japan have signed 15 key agreements including open sky agreement, after the historic launch of India's first bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, to further expand the horizon of their bilateral relationship.  However, upside remained capped with UN’s report that India’s informal sector got badly affected by demonetisation and may take further hit due to GST and lowered country’s growth projection to 6.7% for 2017 from 7% in 2016. Meanwhile, coal import in August declined 24% on a yearly basis as Indian buyers preferred not to buy any fresh fossil fuel and instead wait and watch ahead of an upcoming auction for the power sector.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red as another missile launch by North Korea dented investors’ appetite for riskier banking and mining stocks. However, Asian markets were trading mostly in green. Back home, scrip specific development, Lloyds Metals and Energy traded higher after the company received listing approval from Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India (MSEI) for listing of around 22.26 crore equity shares face value of Rs 1 each on September 14, 2017. Further, trading of shares on the MSEI shall be commenced with effect from September 18, 2017.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32293.38, up by 51.45 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 32138.38 and 32297.87. There were 16 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.06%, while Small cap index was up by 0.31%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.76%, TECK up by 0.66%, Energy up by 0.53%, Oil & Gas up by 0.45% and Telecom up by 0.30%, while Power down by 1.02%, Utilities down by 0.72%, Capital Goods down by 0.38%, Healthcare down by 0.29% and Consumer Durables down by 0.25% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 3.92%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.46%, Coal India up by 1.90%, Infosys up by 1.20% and Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.95%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.32%, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.13%, Sun Pharma down by 0.89%, Cipla down by 0.86% and NTPC down by 0.71% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after the historic launch of India's first bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, India and Japan have signed 15 key agreements including open sky agreement, to further expand the horizon of their bilateral relationship. The open sky agreement will allow the countries airlines to operate unlimited number of flights between the two countries.

Along with agreements like disaster risk management, international joint exchange program in science & technology and India-Japan Act East forum, the two nations also agreed to set up a working group to boost civil nuclear ties, reaffirming their commitment to work together for India to become a full member in multilateral export control regimes such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group.

Besides, in order to accelerate and facilitate Japanese investments in India, an agreement was signed between the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. To implement the commercial arrangement of ‘Cool EMS’ service, one more agreement was signed between India Post and Japan Post which will help to send fresh food from Japan to India in cool boxes for Japanese expatriates in India.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10094.50, up by 7.90 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 10043.65 and 10095.60. There were 23 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 4.02%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.55%, Coal India up by 1.86%, Infosys up by 1.19% and Bharti Infratel up by 1.15%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.48%, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.38%, ACC down by 1.29%, Vedanta down by 1.28% and Cipla down by 1.00% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.92 points or 0.05% to 1,782.29, KOSPI Index increased 8.41 points or 0.35% to 2,386.07, Jakarta Composite increased 13.04 points or 0.22% to 5,865.04, Taiwan Weighted increased 26.84 points or 0.25% to 10,580.41, Hang Seng increased 30.39 points or 0.11% to 27,807.59 and Nikkei 225 increased 102.06 points or 0.52% to 19,909.50. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 17.81 points or 0.53% to 3,353.62.

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 27.32 points or 0.37% to 7,268.07 and Germany’s DAX was down by 3.15 points or 0.03% to 12,537.30. On the flip side, France’s CAC was up by 2.61 points or 0.05% to 5,227.81.