Bulls tighten grip on Dalal Street

Bulls tightened their grip on Dalal Streets with bourses were trading with gains of more than half a percent each on the back of rally in global peers. Traders took encouragement with the report that India is poised to emerge as an economic superpower, driven in part by its young population, while China and the Asian Tigers age rapidly. Sentiments also continued to take support from private report stating that India is likely to overtake Japan and Germany to become the third largest economy in the next 10 years but needs to be consistent in reforms and focus more on the social sector. Adding some optimism, Union Human Resource Minister Prakash Javadekar said that the central government has saved Rs 65,000 crore through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in various public schemes.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green as global investors returned to perceived riskier assets amid cooling geopolitical tensions. Asian markets were also trading in green. Back home, in scrip specific development, Capital First gained after the company raised Rs 80 crore by issue of Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs) on private placement basis. The said NCDs shall be listed on National Stock Exchange of India.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32468.15, up by 195.54 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 32361.25 and 32508.06. There were 26 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.93%, while Small cap index was up by 1.09%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.76%, Capital Goods up by 1.68%, Auto up by 1.34%, Industrials up by 1.27% and Consumer Disc up by 1.27%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 3.05%, Bajaj Auto up by 3.04%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.21%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.05% and Cipla up by 1.78%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.75%, ONGC down by 0.75%, Sun Pharma down by 0.73%, SBI down by 0.57% and ITC down by 0.48% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, driven down by decline in NRI deposits and commercial borrowings, India’s external debt position showed signs of improvements during preceding financial year 2016-2017. As per the latest report released by the Ministry of Finance, the external debt declined by 2.7 per cent or $13.1 billion to $471.9 billion at the end of March 2017, as compared to $485.0 billion at the end of March 2016.

‘India’s External Debt: A Status Report 2016-17’ by Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, also showed that India's long-term external debt decreased by 4.4 percent year-on-year to $383.9 billion at end-March 2017, while short-term external debt increased by 5.5 percent year-on-year to $88 billion at end-March 2017 on account of increase in trade related credits, which account for 98.3 per cent of short-term debt.

The report further said that the country’s  external debt has remained within manageable limits and the external debt situation has improved in 2016-17 over 2015-16 as indicated by the increase in foreign exchange reserves cover to debt to 78.4 per cent from 74.3 per cent and fall in the external debt-GDP ratio to 20.2 per cent from 23.5 per cent. The report further showed the ratio of India’s external debt stock to gross national income (GNI) at 23.4 per cent was the fifth lowest and in terms of the cover provided by foreign exchange reserves to external debt, while India’s position was sixth highest at 69.7 per cent in 2015.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10165.95, up by 80.55 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 10131.30 and 10171.70. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 3.48%, Hindustan Unilever up by 3.14%, Bajaj Auto up by 3.12%, Indusind Bank up by 2.95% and Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.41%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 0.92%, Tata Steel down by 0.69%, ONGC down by 0.69%, ITC down by 0.35% and SBI down by 0.33% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Jakarta Composite increased 1.48 points or 0.03% to 5,873.87, Shanghai Composite increased 9.24 points or 0.28% to 3,362.86, KOSPI Index increased 32.14 points or 1.35% to 2,418.21, Taiwan Weighted increased 51.16 points or 0.48% to 10,631.57 and Hang Seng increased 352.18 points or 1.27% to 28,159.77. On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.67 points or 0.15% to 1,783.66.

All European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC rose 19.22 points or 0.37% to 5,233.13, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 21.95 points or 0.3% to 7,237.42 and Germany’s DAX was up by 68.46 points or 0.55% to 12,587.27.