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

Buoyed by firm global cues, Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading with traction, with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 9,950 (Nifty) and 31,700 (Sensex) levels. Traders took some encouragement with Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu's statement that he is working closely with the finance ministry and other departments to firm up policy initiatives along with fiscal incentives to give a fillip to industrial growth and job creation. Some support also came with Minister of Railways and Coal Piyush Goyal’s statement that India is undergoing a change in the economic narrative and rebranding itself with technology driving growth. Meanwhile, investors keep an eye on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting, scheduled for later today. The Council is likely to give a major relief to exporters as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Global cues too remained supportive with Asian markets rallying at this point of time, taking cues from the US markets after comments from Federal Reserve officials helped ratchet up bets that the U.S. economy is strong enough to withstand higher interest rates. The US markets continued their northbound move and the major averages extended a recent upward trend.

Back home, aviation stocks flying higher on report that India’s domestic passenger traffic grew by 16 percent in August. India’s domestic demand -- revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) -- was highest amongst major aviation markets like Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, Russia and the US. Stocks related to garment sector too remained buzzing, as the government has slashed duty drawback to two per cent from 7.5 per cent with effect from October 1.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31763.89, up by 171.86 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 31632.81 and 31781.90. There were 26 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.74%, while Small cap index was up by 0.99%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.75%, Utilities up by 1.53%, Basic Materials up by 1.39%, Consumer Durables up by 1.35% and Power up by 1.21%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.46%, Tata Steel up by 2.17%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.57%, ONGC up by 1.46% and SBI up by 1.39%. On the flip side, Tata Motors - DVR down by 0.83%, HDFC down by 0.44%, Tata Motors down by 0.38%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.35% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.14% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, concentrating on the motive to provide a fillip to industrial growth and job creation, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that he is working together with the finance ministry and other departments to firm up policy initiatives along with fiscal incentives. He added that the country's economy is doing well and it has a huge growth potential in coming years. Therefore, they are putting in place all the policy frameworks and studying sector by sector, and finding out wherever there is a scope for improvement.

Prabhu said ‘We are taking a lot of policy measures. I am personally working with the Ministry of Finance and the Niti Aayog and all other government institutions to provide necessary policy as well as fiscal support to ensure the industry can actually produce far more than what they are doing today which will create jobs.’ He also said that output numbers will all add to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers. He has said that the government is taking lots of steps to improve ease of doing business in the country, but a lot more needs to be done.

The Commerce and Industry Minister further said that his job is to ensure that entrepreneurship to blossom in India and added that the ministry is also working on an industrial policy. He added that the policy assumes significance as the future of manufacturing would not be same as it is today. Suggesting that excess capacity utilisation can be increased by enhancing domestic consumption and exports, he said that they are working on some of the emerging industries.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9955.00, up by 66.30 points or 0.67% after trading in a range of 9906.60 and 9955.85. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 3.34%, NTPC up by 2.28%, Hindalco up by 2.18%, Vedanta up by 2.06% and Tata Steel up by 2.05%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.46%, Tata Motors down by 0.44%, HDFC down by 0.35%, Zee Entertainment down by 0.19% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.12% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 0.4 points or 0.02% to 1,759.49, Jakarta Composite rose 0.84 points or 0.01% to 5,902.75, Taiwan Weighted increased 7.21 points or 0.07% to 10,525.48, Nikkei 225 added 63.2 points or 0.31% to 20,691.76 and Hang Seng was up by 101.33 points or 0.36% to 28,480.51.