Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks traded in green throughout the day and ended the session with gains of around six tenth of a percent, with Sensex and Nifty ending at record closing high. The benchmarks made an optimistic start in early deals as traders took encouragement with key gauges celebrating early Diwali by hitting all time high. Some support also came with Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar’s statement that economic slowdown that began in 2013-14 has bottomed out and the GDP is likely to grow 6.9 to 7 percent this fiscal and 7.5 percent in 2018-19. The Niti Aayog vice chairman said the country did very well from 2007-13 and the downward cycle started in 2013-14, mainly because of spurge in lending to undeserving projects since 2007. Sentiments were also optimistic on report highlighting 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.

Meanwhile, supported by easing food and non-food article prices and coming in line with the decline in retail inflation, India’s inflation on wholesale level softened in the month of September. According to the latest data released by the government, the wholesale price inflation (WPI) stood at 2.60% in September as against 3.24% in the previous month and 1.36% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 0.97% compared to a build up rate of 3.44% in the corresponding period of the previous year. Separately, IMF chief Christine Lagarde has said that Indian economy is on a very solid track in the mid-term, days after the International Monetary Fund lowered its growth forecast for the current and the next year. Describing the two major recent reforms in India - demonetization and Goods and Services Tax (GST) - as a monumental effort, Lagarde added that it is hardly surprising that there is a little bit of a short-term slowdown as a result. Investors took note of a poll report that the Nifty50 which rose to a fresh record high just ahead of Diwali week may come under pressure and could well move below 10,000 by December 2017. There is a sense of caution as valuations remain high and the recent macro data is raising questions on the stable macro picture which India had among other key emerging markets. Financial results of India Inc for September quarter will continue to dominate investors’ sentiments in the coming week.

On the global front, Asian markets closed mostly higher. China’s producer price inflation unexpectedly accelerated to a six-month high in September as a construction boom shows no signs of abating and a government crackdown on air pollution triggers fears of winter shortages and frenzied jumps in commodity prices. The European markets were trading in green as investors gear up for the latest in political news coming out of Austria, Spain and the UK. Euro zone’s trade surplus shrank in August as the stronger euro fueled an import boom that was only partly offset by a rise in exports.

The BSE Sensex ended at 32623.26, up by 190.57 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 32445.43 and 32687.32. There were 23 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.47%, while Small cap index was up by 0.31%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 4.24%, Metal up by 2.10%, TECK up by 1.24%, Auto up by 1.14% and Healthcare up by 1.09%, while Power down by 0.08% was the sole losing index on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 5.64%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 3.24%, Tata Motors up by 3.18%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.99% and Hindustan Unilever up by 2.68%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.72%, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 0.47%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.38%, HDFC down by 0.35% and Wipro down by 0.19% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, supported by easing food and non-food article prices and coming in line with the decline in retail inflation, India's inflation on wholesale level softened in the month of September. According to the latest data released by the government, the wholesale price inflation (WPI) stood at 2.60% in September as against 3.24% in the previous month and 1.36% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 0.97% compared to a build up rate of 3.44% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Component wise, primary articles index, having weight of 22.62%, witnessed fall of 3% to 130.8 (provisional) from 134.9 (provisional) for the previous month. Among the primary articles, the index for ‘Food Articles’ group decreased by 4% to 144.8 (provisional) from 150.8 (provisional) for the previous month and the index for ‘Non-Food Articles’ group too down by  0.2% to 120.3 (provisional) from 120.6 (provisional) for the previous month. On the other hand, the index for ‘Minerals’ group gained 1.1% to 119.5 (provisional) from 118.2 (provisional) for the previous month.

Fuel & Power index having weight of 13.15% moved up by 1.7% to 90.7 (provisional) from 89.2 (provisional) for the previous month, due to higher price of LPG.

Manufactured Products constituting the major portion of the index with weight of 64.23% increased by 0.4% to 113.4 (provisional) from 112.9 (provisional) for the previous month. The index for 'Manufacture of Food Products' group increased by 0.7% to 128.2 (provisional) from 127.3 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Beverages' group rose by 0.8% to 120.1 (provisional) from 119.1 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Tobacco Products' group increased by 2.2% to 150.9 (provisional) from 147.7 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Textiles' group rose by 0.6% to 113.4 (provisional) from 112.7 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Wearing Apparel' group surged by 0.1 percent to 136.6 (provisional) from 136.5 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Wood and of Products of Wood and Cork ' group gained 0.2% to 132.4 (provisional) from 132.1 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Paper and Paper Products' group increased by 0.7% to 119.3 (provisional) from 118.5 (provisional) for the previous month and the index for 'Printing and Reproduction of Recorded Media' group rose by 0.2% to 144.6 (provisional) from 144.3 (provisional) for the previous month.

The index for 'Manufacture of Chemicals and Chemical Products' group rose by 0.1% to 111.3 (provisional) from 111.2 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Pharmaceuticals, Medicinal Chemical and Botanical Products' group rose by 0.5% to 121.5 (provisional) from 120.9 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Basic Metals' group increased by 2.7% to 100.4 (provisional) from 97.8 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Fabricated Metal Products, Except Machinery and Equipment' group rose by 0.9% to 108.5 (provisional) from 107.5 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Computer, Electronic and Optical Products' group rose by 0.3 percent to 109.2 (provisional) from 108.9 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Electrical Equipment' group rose by 0.8% to 110.2 (provisional) from 109.3 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of other Transport Equipment' group rose by 0.1% to 109.6 (provisional) from 109.5 (provisional) for the previous month and the index for 'Manufacture of Furniture' group was up by 0.5% to 120.1 (provisional) from 119.5 (provisional) for the previous month.

On the other hand, the index for 'Manufacture of Leather and Related Products' group slipped by 1.4% to 119.2 (provisional) from 120.9 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Rubber and Plastics Products' group decreased by 0.4% to 106.8 (provisional) from 107.2 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Machinery and Equipment' group declined by 0.2% to 108.2 (provisional) from 108.4 (provisional) for the previous month, the index for 'Manufacture of Motor Vehicles, Trailers and Semi-Trailers' group declined by 1.3% to 110.5 (provisional) from 111.9 (provisional) for the previous month and the index for 'Other Manufacturing' group dropped 7.4% to 105.3 (provisional) from 113.7 (provisional) for the previous month.

The CNX Nifty ended at 10232.50, up by 65.05 points or 0.64% after trading in a range of 10175.10 and 10242.95. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 6.06%, Vedanta up by 4.23%, Bharti Infratel up by 3.90%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.22% and Tata Motors up by 2.94%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 3.61%, Axis Bank down by 1.99%, Indusind Bank down by 1.68%, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 0.53% and Asian Paints down by 0.45% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 4.73 points or 0.06% to 7,540.17, Germany’s DAX increased 23.34 points or 0.18% to 13,015.21 and France’s CAC increased 4.31 points or 0.08% to 5,356.05.

The Asian markets made mostly a positive close on Monday as commodity prices advanced, though Hang Seng led the gainers, Japanese market too remained in jubilant mood since morning, hitting a fresh 21-year high and ending up by around half a percent, as yen stayed flat against the dollar amid expectations that Shinzo Abe will win another majority in the House of Representatives election held on Sunday. Traders got some encouragement with finance ministers from around the world expressed their desire for lower interest rates at a weekend meeting of the International Monetary Fund. However, the Chinese shares ended slightly lower even as inflation figures matched forecasts and People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said the economy is set to achieve 7 percent growth in the second half of the year on rapid growth in household consumption.