Benchmarks continue firm trade in morning session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in morning session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters. The rupee climbed against the dollar after US president’s tax cut plans failed to sustain interest in the US currency among traders. Sentiments remained upbeat with OPEC’s statement that India is experiencing some of the greatest structural changes as bold new reforms like note ban and GST have put the country firmly on a sustainable growth path. Separately, former RBI Governor C Rangarajan said that he expects that the economy would grow at 6.5% for the year 2017-18. He also said the job opportunities and economic growth of the country are inter-related. The street will be eyeing the recently constituted Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) meeting which will hold its first meeting today to deliberate upon and lay out a roadmap to give a leg up to the Indian economy in the short term after GDP growth for the first quarter fell to a three-year low of 5.7%. Key issues expected to come up for discussion include ways to boost consumer demand, attract private investments and measures to incentivize job creation in the country.

Investors took note of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report that the downgrade in India’s growth for the current fiscal by 0.5% to 6.7% is a blip in a much positive long-term picture of its economy. IMF appeared to be confident about the future of Indian economy. It enlightened that in general, the state of India’s economy is quite good. The government has energetically perused structural reforms, including the GST which will have a payoff longer term. It added that the country has benefited from the improved terms of trade. It has also benefited from return of normal monsoonal rain season given the large share of agriculture.

Traders were seen piling up position in Telecom, Oil & Gas and Energy sector stocks.  In scrip specific development, shares of Bharti Infratel, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular were trading in green on report indicating KKR-led consortium fund is in talks to buy the tower business. Sreeleathers was trading in green after touching 52-week high as it is going to consider the proposal of buyback of shares. The company’s board meeting is scheduled to be held on October 14, to consider, approve and take on record the proposal for buyback of equity shares of the company.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green. Japan’s core machinery orders rose for a second straight month in August, handily beating market expectations, signalling a pickup in capital expenditure that should encourage Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ahead of a general election this month. Back home, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were trading above the psychological 32,000 and 10,050 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1507:760, while 87 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32083.83, up by 159.42 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 31967.54 and 32098.46. There were 22 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.57%, while Small cap index was up by 0.80%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.96%, Oil & Gas up by 1.33%, Energy up by 1.16%, Realty up by 0.92% and TECK up by 0.91%, while there were no losers on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.61%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.11%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.77%, Axis Bank up by 1.54% and Reliance Industries up by 1.39%.

On the flip side, Coal India down by 0.70%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.50%, Tata Motors down by 0.50%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.38% and ITC down by 0.38% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, putting emphasis on the irrigation, Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that 285 new irrigation projects will be taken up by next year to provide irrigation for 1 crore 88 lakh hectare of land. The Minister said water, power, transport and communication are the four most important pillars of development, adding that the government is keen to provide safe drinking water to every household and irrigation water for every farm.

Gadkari further said that drip irrigation and irrigation through pipeline would be the priority areas of the Government as this would save huge amount of water and also cut down the cost involved in acquiring land. He also said that he was exploring the possibility of NTPC power plants using treated waste water and that he had spoken to the Power Minister in this regard.

Minister of State for Water Resources Arjun Ram Meghwal said that the government has also proposed a Rs 6,000 crore national ground water management improvement scheme, with the support of the World Bank. According to him there are 112 districts in the country where irrigation cover is less than 20 per cent and time-bound action plans are needed to meet the challenges of water scarcity and flood management.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10063.45, up by 46.50 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 10037.55 and 10067.25. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.47%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.59%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.15%, HPCL up by 2.14% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.71%.

On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing down by 1.90%, Coal India down by 0.63%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.60%, ITC down by 0.58% and Tata Motors down by 0.50% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased 10.81 points or 0.32% to 3,393.80, KOSPI Index increased 21.1 points or 0.87% to 2,454.91, Nikkei 225 increased 55.6 points or 0.27% to 20,879.11 and Taiwan Weighted increased 108.39 points or 1.03% to 10,641.20.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite decreased 44.6 points or 0.76% to 5,861.16, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 5.4 points or 0.31% to 1,755.73 and Hang Seng decreased 4.09 points or 0.01% to 28,486.74.