Benchmarks hit all time high in early trade

Bulls have tightened their grip on Dalal Street in early deals on Monday, with key gauges celebrating early Diwali by hitting all time high and gone past their crucial 32,600 (Sensex) and 10,200 (Nifty) levels. Traders took some encouragement with report that India’s exports recorded a robust growth of 25.67 percent to $ 28.61 billion in September, mainly on account of rise in shipments of engineering, chemicals, and petroleum products. Imports too rose by 18.09 percent to $ 37.59 billion in September from $ 31.83 billion in the year-ago month and the trade deficit narrowed to 7-month low of $ 8.98 billion in the month under review from $ 9.07 billion in September 2016. Some support also came with IMF chief Christine Lagarde’s statement, who just days after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) slashed India’s GDP growth rate to 6.7 percent in 2017, slower than the 7.2% it had forecast in April, has said that the Indian economy is on a firm footing.

Global cues too remained supportive with most of the Asian counters trading in green at this point of time, after inflation data in the U.S. added to evidence that global growth is continuing steadily with limited price pressures in the American economy. The US markets bounced back and ended higher in the last session, supported by some upbeat economic data.

Back home, Reliance Industries edged higher on reporting 12.79% rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 8,097 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 as compared to Rs 7,179 crore for the corresponding quarter in the FY17. Meanwhile, Godrej Agrovet made a stellar debut today and listed with a gain of 30% on BSE, the initial public offer was oversubscribed 95.41 times.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32631.24, up by 198.55 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 32477.47 and 32687.32. There were 28 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.55%, while Small cap index was up by 0.67%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.58%, Metal up by 1.45%, Basic Materials up by 1.07%, Auto up by 0.93% and Utilities was up by 0.79%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.98%, Tata Motors up by 1.63%, Cipla up by 1.51%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.39% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.34%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.15%, Axis Bank down by 0.74% and Adani Ports &Special down by 0.07% were the few losers.

Meanwhile, after so much talk of a big stimulus by government in offing, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley cooling down the expectation has said that he never talked about any stimulus package for boosting economy. At the end of his week-long official visit to the US, Jaitley said that while interacting with media he said will respond to situations and the word respond was translated as meaning stimulus.

Finance Minister noting that his government had inherited a huge fiscal deficit just three-and-a-half years ago of 4.6 per cent, said that gradually India has been moving on a glide path, which will continue and further said that “What are the requirements on the economy? How steep is that glide path, You can decide on a year to year basis.” He also said that the Reserve Bank of India is a mature institution and it knows what to do.

Earlier after a sharp fall in latest key macro indicators such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and industrial production, Jaitley had hinted at a package of measures to boost the economy. But he refused to divulge details, saying the measures would be unveiled only after consultation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Jaitley further said that, we have taken note of all the economic indicators that are available. This has been a pro-active government on the reforms agenda. I have had a series of discussions with ministerial colleagues and various secretaries.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10229.45, up by 62.00 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 10206.05 and 10242.95. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 2.22%, Vedanta up by 1.98%, Tata Motors up by 1.67%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.64% and Cipla up by 1.63%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.69%, Wipro down by 1.25%, Axis Bank down by 0.89%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.32% and Zee Entertainment down by 0.24% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index rose 0.91 points or 0.04% to 2,474.53, Taiwan Weighted increased 21.39 points or 0.2% to 10,745.48, Jakarta Composite gained 24.29 points or 0.41% to 5,948.41, Nikkei 225 added 137.11 points or 0.65% to 21,292.29 and Hang Seng was up by 241.19 points or 0.85% to 28,717.62.

On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 4.23 points or 0.24% to 1,751.09 and Shanghai Composite was down by 3.74 points or 0.11% to 3,386.78.