Bourses continue to hold small gains in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to hold small gains in early afternoon session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters. Sentiment on the street remained positive with report that India's dominant services industry activity expanded at its fastest pace in four months in October as demand continued to strengthen, despite accelerating price pressures. The Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 51.7 in October from September’s 50.7. Some support also came with the Finance Ministry’s green signal to foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals worth Rs 24.56 crore. Moreover, gain in Realty, Capital Goods and Industrials sector stocks along with positive trend at other Asian markets, too aided to optimistic milieu. In scrip specific development, Bharti Airtel was up by over half a percent on planning to invest Rs 25,000 crore in expanding and strengthening its 4G network during the ongoing fiscal year instead of Rs 20,000 crore announced earlier.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, on the back of better than expected Services PMI numbers from China which came in at 51.2 vs. 50.6. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33640.99, up by 67.77 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 33531.94 and 33692.58. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.17%, while Small cap index was up by 0.71%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.02%, Capital Goods up by 0.99%, Industrials up by 0.74%, Power up by 0.71% and Telecom up by 0.63%, while Energy down by 0.24%, Auto down by 0.21%, Healthcare down by 0.11% and Consumer Disc down by 0.04% were the  top losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 1.70%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.33%, Cipla up by 1.11%, ONGC up by 1.06% and HDFC up by 1.04%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 1.16%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.99%, Sun Pharma down by 0.98%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.81% and TCS down by 0.60% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a bid to fund large infrastructure projects in India, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari has said that nearly Rs 5 trillion can be raised from capital markets, most of which could in fact come from domestic investors. He noted that the government will go to the capital markets to raise funds through bonds. To help develop infra projects, he also urged banks, financial institutions and private players. He pointed out that the ministry has already undertaken massive infra projects and has set a target of Rs 25 trillion investments in highways and shipping over the next five years. He believes that this will contribute 2-3% to the country’s economic growth, will create over 1 crore jobs.

The minister has stated that they will be rolling out most of the Rs 7 trillion projects which recently announced by the government, before December 2018. He also said that this programme is the biggest infrastructure programme, including Bharatmala and expects to award nearly 25,000 km of road projects this financial year. He indicated that financial year 2012-13 saw awarding of 1,916 km, in 2013-14 it was 3,620 km, in 2014-15 it rose to 7,972 km, while in 2015-16, the quantum grew to 10,098 km. It also noted that previous fiscal, it touched 15,948 km and this year they have kept a target of 25,000 km.

Apart from building corridors at a cost of Rs 1.2 trillion, Gadkari said that lane expansion will be done at 34 places, logistics parks at 35 locations. In addition to this, he said that wayside amenities will be created at 180 sites over the next two years with each having job potential for many. Talking on the ambitious Bharatmala project, he said that under the first phase, 550 districts will be linked with the NHs. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10445.85, up by 22.05 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 10403.60 and 10461.70. There were 25 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 1.98%, Indusind Bank up by 1.69%, Axis Bank up by 1.51%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.20% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.19%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.49%, Lupin down by 1.24%, Sun Pharma down by 1.18%, BPCL down by 0.99% and Coal India down by 0.86% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.77 points or 0.16% to 1,743.82, KOSPI Index was up by 11.61 points or 0.46% to 2,557.97, Taiwan Weighted rose 12.26 points or 0.11% to 10,800.77 and Hang Seng added 88.85 points or 0.31% to 28,607.49.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 38.3 points or 0.64% to 5,992.80 and Shanghai Composite was down by 34.51 points or 1.02% to 3,348.80.