Bourses hold gains; Telecom stocks lead

Indian equity benchmarks hold their gains in late morning session, tracking positive trend seen in Asian markets. The market participants remained optimistic with oil cartel OPEC's Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo’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. Some relief also came with private report that the Reserve Bank is expected to cut key interest rate in December amid receding inflation and signal lower rates before the busy October-March industrial season intensifies. Traders paid no heed towards the World Bank’s latest report stating that India's economic momentum has been affected by disruptions from the withdrawal of banknotes and uncertainties around the goods and services tax (GST). Meanwhile, private equity/venture capital investments touched a record high of $8.7 billion in the September quarter, a sharp increase over last year, largely driven by big-ticket transactions.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in mostly in green, taking cues from signs of confidence in the US. Meanwhile, the euro firmed after Catalonia held back on an outright declaration of independence. Back home, in scrip specific development, Tata Power Company gained after the company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Central Board of Irrigation and Power (CBIP) to co-create, develop, and impart training and skill-development courses to the youth as well as employees of the power sector.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32051.19, up by 126.78 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 31967.54 and 32098.46. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.36%, while Small cap index was up by 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.92%, Oil & Gas up by 1.22%, Energy up by 1.01%, Utilities up by 0.80% and TECK up by 0.74%, while Metal down by 0.03% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.92%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.96%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.82%, Axis Bank up by 1.35% and Reliance Industries up by 1.08%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 0.70%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.63%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.60%, Lupin down by 0.53% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.52% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest flagship World Economic Outlook has lowered India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast for 2017 by 0.5 percentage points to 6.7 percent, primarily because of the lingering impact of demonetisation as well as disruption caused by the goods and services tax (GST) regime. Earlier, in April, the IMF had pegged the country’s growth forecast at 7.2 percent for 2017.

Further, the IMF has also trimmed the growth projection for 2018 to 7.4 percent from 7.7 percent forecasted earlier in April and June, which could once again turn India into the fastest growing economy in the world. Besides, it noted that the downgrade for this year for India looks like a blip and added that in general, the state of India’s economy is quite good. It also mentioned that the government has actively perused structural reforms, including the GST which will have a payoff longer term.

The report further stated that the country has benefited from the improved terms of trade as well as from return of normal monsoonal rain season given the large share of agriculture. It also said that GST, which promises the unification of India's vast domestic market, is among several key structural reforms under implementation that are expected to help push growth above 8 per cent in the medium term.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10053.65, up by 36.70 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 10037.55 and 10067.25. There were 30 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.84%, HPCL up by 2.93%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.51%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.77% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.75%. On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 2.05%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.73%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.70%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.68% and Lupin down by 0.66% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased 7.5 points or 0.22% to 3,390.49, KOSPI Index increased 18.78 points or 0.77% to 2,452.59, Hang Seng increased 24.13 points or 0.08% to 28,514.96, Nikkei 225 increased 70.73 points or 0.34% to 20,894.24 and Taiwan Weighted increased 108.38 points or 1.03% to 10,641.19.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 44.6 points or 0.76% to 5,861.16 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 5.4 points or 0.31% to 1,755.73.