Benchmarks trade slightly in green in early deals

Extending their previous session’s northward journey, Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading slightly in green in early deals on Thursday. Sentiments remained optimistic with a private report stating that India’s current account deficit (CAD) for this financial year is expected to be around $ 40 billion, or 1.5 per cent of GDP. CAD rose sharply to $ 14.3 billion, 2.4 per cent of GDP, at the end of first quarter of 2017-18. However, gains remained capped as traders remained on sidelines awaiting the formal nomination of the next head of the central bank.

Weakness in global markets too limited the upside with most of the Asian counters trading in red at this point of time, as investors digest news that President Donald Trump picked Jerome Powell to lead the Federal Reserve. The US markets made a mixed closing in the last session, coming off their record highs reached in initial trade after the Federal Reserve’s announcement of its latest monetary policy decision.

Back home, PSU banking stocks remained under pressure, despite report that the government in a bid to push consolidation among state run lenders has said that the alternative Mechanism headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley may also direct banks to examine proposals for amalgamation. Steel stocks too lost sheen despite report that the Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh has called for coastal shipping of steel products to boost growth of the sector.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33643.21, up by 42.94 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 33547.10 and 33646.47. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.78%, while Small cap index was up by 0.54%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 2.35%, Consumer Durables up by 1.18%, Oil & Gas up by 0.65%, Utilities up by 0.50% and Energy up by 0.37%, while Metal down by 0.22%, Auto down by 0.18%, FMCG down by 0.07%, Capital Goods down by 0.03% and Industrials was down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Lupin up by 2.68%, Sun Pharma up by 2.31%, Cipla up by 1.55%, ICICI Bank up by 1.34% and Power Grid up by 1.28%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.37%, SBI down by 1.06%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.04%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.00% and Tata Motors down by 0.93% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after a record jump of 30 places in the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) secretary Ramesh Abhishek has said that the government is working with the World Bank (WB) to recognise over 200 reforms that will help propel India into the top-50 bracket in ease of doing business. He added that they have already implemented 122 reforms this year, and will further initiate 90 more ease of doing business reforms this year.

Abhishek said the department has already started meeting stakeholders and taking feedback from them on the reform measures taken by the government to improve business climate. This exercise has helped them a lot. This time they focused mainly on taking feedback from stakeholders and all nodal ministries were taking feedback. He also said the WB report has acknowledged that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a substantial reform and hopefully it will have a positive impact on the country's ranking next year.

The Secretary urged the states to address issues like inadequate infrastructure and inflexible labour policies to make them more competitive. He further said that states should invest in skilling and need to come up with policies for fixed term employment like the government has worked out for the apparel sector. He added that they are also working on a similar package for leather and footwear sector.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10448.65, up by 8.15 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 10431.40 and 10453.00. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Aurobindo Pharma up by 3.49%, Lupin up by 2.54%, Sun Pharma up by 2.19%, GAIL India up by 1.55% and UPL up by 1.36%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 4.30%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.54%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.53%, Tata Motors down by 1.29% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.24% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 41.59 points or 0.15% to 28,552.47, Shanghai Composite declined 19.8 points or 0.58% to 3,376.11, KOSPI Index shed 10.18 points or 0.4% to 2,546.29, Taiwan Weighted slipped 4.3 points or 0.04% to 10,802.06 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 3.51 points or 0.2% to 1,740.42.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite increased 39.77 points or 0.66% to 6,077.91 and Nikkei 225 was up by 55.43 points or 0.25% to 22,475.51.