Bourses continue to trade firm; Nifty holds 10,050 mark

Key barometer gauges continued their firm trade in green territory in early afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counters. Sentiments remained on positive mood 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. Additional support came with former RBI Governor C Rangarajan’s statement 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. Further, positive cues from Asian markets too supported the indices to sustain the early leads. However, further gains were restricted as investors preferred to remain on sidelines ahead of key economic data -- August IIP and September CPI, which are scheduled to be released tomorrow. In scrip specific development, Goa Carbon surged by around three percent after reporting around 3-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 13.76 crore for the quarter under review as compared to Rs 4.72 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, tracking the overnight gains on Wall Street and higher commodity prices. In addition, better-than-expected regional economic data boosted optimism about global economic growth. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32045.51, up by 121.10 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 31967.54 and 32098.46. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 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 0.24%, while Small cap index was up by 0.48%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 3.08%, Oil & Gas up by 1.47%, Energy up by 1.20%, TECK up by 0.79% and Utilities up by 0.59%, while Metal down by 0.02% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.98%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.91%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.76%, Axis Bank up by 1.33% and TCS up by 1.24%. On the flip side, SBI down by 1.09%, Lupin down by 0.86%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.70%, Coal India down by 0.65% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the World Bank in its latest report has said that India's economic momentum has been affected by disruptions arising from structural reforms like demonetisation and uncertainties around the new uniform tax regime. As a result of this, it said that the country’s economic growth may slow down to 7.0 percent in 2017 from 8.6 percent in 2015. However, it also expects that sound policies around balancing public spending with private investment could accelerate growth to 7.3 percent by 2018.

In its latest South Asia Economic Focus, a biannual economic update, the unilateral agency has stated that while sustained growth is expected to translate to continued poverty reduction, more focus could be made to help benefit the informal economy more.  On the one hand, the report indicated that public and private consumption gained pace after implementation of the 7th central pay commission recommendations and due to the revival in rural demand after normal monsoon and agricultural impetus, however, overall demand slowed as public investments started to wane.

The report further said that economic growth is expected to increase gradually to 7.4 percent by 2020, underpinned by a recovery in private investments, which are expected to be crowded-in by the recent increase in public capex and an improvement in the investment climate (partly due to the passage of GST and Bankruptcy Code, and measures to attract FDI). It also said that the most substantial medium-term risks are associated with private investment recovery, which continues to face several domestic impediments such as corporate debt overhang, regulatory and policy challenges, along with the risk of an imminent increase in US interest rates.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10057.45, up by 40.50 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 10037.55 and 10067.25. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HPCL up by 4.08%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.80%, Bharti Infratel up by 3.19%, Indian Oil Corporation up by 2.11% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.83%. On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 2.03%, SBI down by 1.01%, Lupin down by 0.95%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.89% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.80% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased 4.97 points or 0.15% to 3,387.96, Hang Seng was up by 8.03 points or 0.03% to 28,498.86, KOSPI Index rose 24.35 points or 1% to 2,458.16, Nikkei 225 added 57.76 points or 0.28% to 20,881.27 and Taiwan Weighted surged 108.38 points or 1.03% to 10,641.19.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 40.6 points or 0.69% to 5,865.16 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 5.26 points or 0.3% to 1,755.87.