Local bourses continue to trade higher in noon deals

Mirroring positive global cues, key benchmark indices continued to trade higher in early afternoon session, on the back of sustained buying by domestic institutional investors and retailers. The sentiments continued to remain firm with the Finance Minister FM Arun Jaitley’s indication that the government would consider reducing the goods and services tax slabs and easing compliance burden for small taxpayers once revenues from GST better those from the previous tax regime. The up-move also got support with report that manufacturing activity in India showed a modest improvement in September supported by increases in both output and new orders. The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, or PMI, remained unchanged at 51.2 in September. Besides, bouts of buying in Consumer Durables, Auto, FMCG, Realty and Energy sector stocks, too added to the positive mood. In the currency front, the rupee fell sharply by 24 paise to 65.51 against the dollar in early trade as the greenback took on more strength overseas. In scrip specific development, TVS Motor Company was trading in green after registering a sales growth of 23% increasing from 293,257 units in September 2016 to 359,850 units registered in the month of September 2017.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, after strong factory data and the prospect of American tax cuts boosted confidence in the global economy. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31518.13, up by 234.41 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 31440.48 and 31615.28. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.99%, while Small cap index was up by 0.82%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.59%, Auto up by 1.34%, FMCG up by 1.19%, Realty up by 1.15% and Energy up by 1.13%, while Capital Goods down by 0.16% and Power down by 0.12% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors - DVR up by 5.33%, Tata Motors up by 4.02%, Asian Paints up by 3.42%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.57% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.17%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.59%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.06%, SBI down by 0.93%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.63% and Coal India down by 0.41% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing hopes about India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth recovery in the coming months, Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor C Rangarajan has said that the economy needs to pick up very fast to be able to maintain a healthy annual growth for the financial year 2017-18. He also said that the government should take quick measures to push the economic growth.

Besides, Rangarajan has indicated that the economy has bottomed out because, for two quarters it has remained at 5.7 percent. He also noted that the economy needs to grow at 7 percent in three quarters even to have a growth rate of 6.5 percent for the year as a whole. He also pointed out that the glitches of goods and services tax (GST) may be over and some of the effects of demonetisation would also be neutralised with the new currency coming in. Therefore, he said that the growth rate needs to pick up much faster.

The former governor also suggested the need for revival of all viable stalled projects, recapitalisation of banks at the earliest and removal of impediments in the way of higher corporate investments to give a push to the economy. He also stated that one immediate thing that needs to be done is to recapitalise the banks as quickly as possible to enable them to lend more. He added that the government should meet industry bodies in small groups to find out the impediments that have come in the way of higher level of investment and try to remove them.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9861.90, up by 73.30 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 9831.05 and 9895.40. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 3.99%, GAIL India up by 3.90%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 2.97%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.69% and Aurobindo Pharma up by 2.44%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.82%, SBI down by 1.06%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.06%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.62% and Coal India down by 0.42% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.59 points or 0.15% to 1,757.37, Taiwan Weighted was up by 4.19 points or 0.04% to 10,469.35, Jakarta Composite added 18.99 points or 0.32% to 5,933.02, Nikkei 225 rose 213.29 points or 1.05% to 20,614.07 and Hang Seng surged 495.37 points or 1.8% to 28,049.67.