Markets hold gains in late morning session

Key Indian benchmarks held their gains in late morning session to continue firm trade, as investors widened their positions ahead of quarterly earnings from some bluechip companies. Sentiments remained optimistic with SBI’s report that the government is likely to achieve its fiscal deficit target of 3.2 per cent this financial year as the budgeted disinvestment receipts are on track to realise Rs 72,500 crore. Some support also came with the private report stating that the slowdown in the Indian economy has bottomed out but the pace of recovery would critically depend on the initiatives that the government takes from now onwards. Adding to the gains, Union Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will remain as a Good and Simple Tax in the coming days to come and will prove to be as a better medium for small traders and businessmen. Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet approved the Phase 1 of Bharatmala project to develop and expand approximately 40,000 km of roads at an investment of Rs 3.5 lakh crore in the next 5 years.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, despite the weak lead overnight from Wall Street. However, gains are modest as investors seemed reluctant to make significant moves as they brace for a heavy schedule of corporate earnings results this week. Investors are also keeping an eye on China's 19th Communist Party Congress, which draws to an official close later today. Back home, in scrip specific development, Ramco Systems traded jubilantly after the company has won a Multi-million dollar Payroll Transformation order from one of the FTSE 100 constituent and British Multinational Banking & Financial Services company.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32600.67, up by 93.95 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 32534.21 and 32670.37. There were 19 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.26%, while Small cap index was up by 0.78%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.39%, Metal up by 1.35%, Basic Materials up by 1.29%, Power up by 1.18% and Utilities up by 1.10%, while Healthcare down by 0.06% and Capital Goods down by 0.05% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.83%, NTPC up by 2.66%, Tata Steel up by 1.86%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.24% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.31%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.95%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 0.85%, Sun Pharma down by 0.61% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.39% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, a flash report by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has revealed that as many as 331 infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore or above each have suffered cost overrun of Rs 1.72 lakh crore due to delays and other similar reasons by July 2017. The report said that total original cost of implementation of the 1,257 projects was Rs 15,76,903.56 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 17,49,274.62 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 1,72,371.06 crore (10.93 percent of original cost).

The ministry's flash report has also indicated that out of a total of 1,257 projects, 2 projects have reported completion and 10 new projects have been initiated on the monitor of this ministry during the month of July. It noted that the expenditure incurred on these projects till July 2017 is Rs 6,80,016.96 crore, which is 38.87 percent of the anticipated cost of the projects. However, the report said that the number of delayed projects decreases to 215 if delay is calculated with reference to latest revised schedule of completion.

As per the report, out of the total, 11 projects are ahead of schedule, 304 are on schedule and 274 are delayed, 331 projects are showing cost overrun and 92 projects are showing both time and cost overrun with respect to original implementation schedules. It also indicated that out of 274 delayed projects, 47 projects have overall delay in the range of 1 to 12 months, 59 projects have delay in the range of 13 to 24 months, 101 projects have delay in the range of 25 to 60 months and 67 projects have delay of 61 months and above. It also attributed the time overrun to a host of issues including delay in land acquisition, forest clearance, supply of equipment, funds constraints, the Maoist incursion, legal cases and law and order situation.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10216.80, up by 31.95 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 10187.85 and 10237.75. There were 30 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 2.91%, Vedanta up by 2.81%, NTPC up by 2.57%, Yes Bank up by 2.09% and Tata Steel up by 1.80%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.46%, Tata Motors down by 1.38%, HCL Tech down by 1.16%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.89% and Bosch down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased 2.34 points or 0.07% to 3,383.04, KOSPI Index increased 2.85 points or 0.11% to 2,492.90, Jakarta Composite increased 6.99 points or 0.12% to 5,957.02, Taiwan Weighted increased 8.57 points or 0.08% to 10,743.78 and Nikkei 225 increased 86.76 points or 0.4% to 21,783.41.

On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 1.19 points or 0.07% to 1,740.28 and Hang Seng decreased 0.72 points or 0% to 28,305.16.