Benchmarks trade jubilantly in early deals; Nifty surpasses 10,400 mark

Bulls tightened their grip on Dalal Street and key gauges are trading jubilantly in early deals with Sensex and Nifty surpassing their crucial 33,500 and 10,400 levels, hitting fresh record highs, respectively. Sentiments remained up-beat on report that India’s ranking in the World Bank ease of doing business survey for 2018 climbing a record 30 notches to 100, as a range of regulatory and policy reforms put in place by the Union and state governments over the past four years started delivering results. The survey also recognized India as one of the top five reformers in this year’s assessment. Traders also took some encouragement from the economy front, as the Core sector growth hit a six-month high in September. The index of eight core industries was up 5.2% in September, compared with 4.4% in August and 5.3% in September last year. Also, fiscal deficit improved to 91.3% of the budget estimate at the end of September from 96.1% at the end of August as revenues picked up pace. Fiscal deficit is pegged at Rs 4.99 lakh crore at the end of September, down about Rs 26,000 crore from August as second instalment of corporate taxes allowed revenue to exceed spending in the month.

Global cues too remained supportive with Asian counters trading mostly in green at this point of time. Japanese market was trading near all-time highs, as American consumer confidence data strengthened optimism in the growth outlook and investors shrugged off the latest turmoil in Washington. The US markets made a modestly higher closing in the last session and though the buying interest was somewhat subdued, the tech-heavy Nasdaq reached a new record closing high. Back home, banking stocks remained in focus, as the Country's largest lender, State Bank of India has announced a cut in marginal cost-based lending rates (MCLR) across maturities by 5 basis points.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33540.16, up by 327.03 points or 0.98% after trading in a range of 33340.62 and 33560.11. There were 27 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.67%, while Small cap index was up by 0.86%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 3.36%, Realty up by 2.52%, Bankex up by 1.86%, Metal up by 1.27% and PSU up by 1.17%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 6.27%, ICICI Bank up by 3.82%, SBI up by 3.02%, Axis Bank up by 2.88% and Tata Steel up by 1.13%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.50%, TCS down by 0.64%, Power Grid down by 0.56% and Sun Pharma down by 0.14% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, notching up the biggest improvement among all countries, India has jumped 30 places to rank 100th in the World Bank's 'ease of doing business' ranking among 190 countries, on the back of slew of reforms in taxation, licensing, investor protection and bankruptcy resolution. Last year, India was ranked 130th, this is the first time India has broken into top 100 nations. The report also recognised India as one of the top 10 improvers in this year’s assessment, having implemented reforms in eight out of 10 Doing Business indicators.

In its annual report 'Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs', the World Bank (WB) has said that India's ranking reflects nearly half of the 37 reforms, adopted since 2003, implemented in the last four years. However, the ranking does not take into account business environment post implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which weaved the country of 1.3 billion into one market with one tax and removed inter-state barriers for trade. It also said India is the only large country this year to have achieved such a significant shift. On the ‘distance to frontier metric’, one of the key indicators in the survey, India’s score went from 56.05 in Doing Business 2017 to 60.76 in Doing Business 2018.

As per the report, the parameters that witnessed improvement in 2016-17 were, India making it faster for start business, reduction in procedures and time required to obtain building permit, easier access to credit, protecting minority investors, ease of paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and making resolving insolvency easier. But it still lags in areas such as starting a business, enforcing contracts and dealing with construction permits. The report pointed out that it takes 30 days now to register a new business, down from 127 days 15 years ago, but the number of procedures is still cumbersome for local entrepreneurs who still need to go through 12 procedures.

According to the World Bank, New Zealand is the easiest place on the planet to do business, followed by Singapore, Denmark, South Korea and Hong Kong. The US and the UK are ranked 6th and 7th on the list. Among BRICS countries, Russia tops the list with 35th position, followed by China which has retained its ranking at the 78th place for the second consecutive year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10425.30, up by 90.00 points or 0.87% after trading in a range of 10383.05 and 10431.80. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 6.00%, ICICI Bank up by 3.55%, Axis Bank up by 3.02%, SBI up by 2.96% and Vedanta up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 1.39%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.37%, UPL down by 1.09%, TCS down by 0.91% and Indiabulls Housing down by 0.73% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite rose 6.02 points or 0.18% to 3,399.36, Jakarta Composite gained 7.67 points or 0.13% to 6,013.46, KOSPI Index surged 29.11 points or 1.15% to 2,552.54, Hang Seng jumped 150.1 points or 0.53% to 28,395.64 and Nikkei 225 was up by 311.78 points or 1.42% to 22,323.39.

On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 3.75 points or 0.21% to 1,744.17 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 2.23 points or 0.02% to 10,791.57.