Firm trade prevails in morning session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in morning session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The rupee opened lower against dollar on account of buying of American currency by banks and importers. Foreign Portfolio Investors stood net buyers in domestic equity markets in the previous trading session and bought shares worth Rs 2,680.94 crore with gross purchases and gross sales at Rs 8,083.35 crore and Rs 5,402.41 crore, respectively. Sentiments remained up-beat with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India is set to become an ‘extremely attractive’ country to do business, on the back of greater digitisation and formalisation of financial activities and businesses. He also said that the country is growing at a reasonable rate, integration of the formal with the informal economy as well as structural changes are taking place, while the tax base itself is expanding. Investors took note of a private survey which showed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains by far the most popular figure in Indian politics, releasing the main findings of its latest survey conducted among 2,464 respondents in India. The report enlightened that the public’s positive assessment of Modi is buoyed by growing contentment with the Indian economy: more than eight-in-ten say economic conditions are good. Auto sector stocks were buzzing in today’s trade after the Indian government along with consultation of oil marketing companies (OMCs) have decided to advance the roll-out of Bharat Stage (BS-VI) auto grade fuels in Delhi by two years to April 1, 2018.

Traders were seen piling up position in Energy, Telecom and Oil & Gas stocks, while selling was witnessed in Realty sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Dixon Technologies was trading in green as the net profit rose 37.24% to Rs 18.61 crore in the quarter ended September 2017 as against Rs 13.56 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2016. Sales rose 60.89% to Rs 736.31 crore in the quarter ended September 2017 as against Rs 457.64 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2016. New India Assurance was trading in green on reporting 187.52% jump in net profit for three months ended September 30, 2017 due to lower incurred claims loss and improvement combined ratio. The company reported net profit of Rs 748.27 crore as against Rs 260.24 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green. China’s banking regulator has set new rules for the country’s three policy banks to help rein in risks amid a broader tightening of controls over the financial sector. The new rules require the three banks to strengthen governance systems and to establish capital restraint mechanisms based on capital adequacy ratios. Back home, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were trading above the psychological 32,900 and 10,150 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1384:831, while 115 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32931.09, up by 170.65 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 32829.82 and 32956.05. There were 25 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.57%, while Small cap index was up by 0.45%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 1.05%, Telecom up by 0.69%, Oil & Gas up by 0.62%, Healthcare up by 0.57% and Utilities up by 0.55%, while Realty down by 0.11% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 1.88%, Tata Motors up by 1.22%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.07%, Infosys up by 0.79% and ICICI Bank up by 0.76%.

On the flip side, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 2.21%, Coal India down by 1.30%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.46%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.30% and Asian Paints down by 0.11% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a measure aimed at reducing pollution from vehicular emission, one of the elements being blamed for the foul air in Delhi and its surrounding areas, the petroleum ministry in consultation with public sector oil marketing companies has decided on introducing BS-VI grade fuel in Delhi from April 1, 2018, instead of April 1, 2020. The oil ministry has asked state-run fuel retailers, to also examine introducing BS-VI auto fuels in the NCR (National Capital Region) a year later, in April 2019. Sulphur specification for petrol and diesel will be reduced 50 times for a level of 500 ppm for BS-II fuel to 10 ppm in BS-VI.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said “the decision to prepone the introduction of BS-VI grade fuel in NCT of Delhi w.e.f. 1st April 2018 in place of 1st April 2020 is a sincere effort to curb the vehicular pollution in Delhi and adjoining areas. The advancement will, however, not apply to automobiles. Even if vehicles use BS-VI grade fuel their emissions will not be BS-VI compliant. The government had earlier decided to leapfrog to BS-VI by April 1, 2020, skipping BS-V.

Society of Indian Auto Manufacturers (SIAM) has said that the move was in line with international practices where the higher grade of fuel is generally introduced a couple of years before higher emission standards for vehicles kick in. SIAM President Abhay Firodia said the early introduction of BS VI fuel gives confidence to the Auto Industry that BS VI Fuel will be available across the country from 1st April 2020, when the Auto Industry will fully migrate to manufacturing only BS VI compliant vehicles on a pan India basis.  Oil refining companies had invested over Rs 55,000 crore for production and supply of BS-III/IV fuel and had planned to invest Rs 80,000 crore in upgrading their petrol and diesel quality to meet BS-VI specifications by 2020.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10160.15, up by 42.10 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 10139.20 and 10169.35. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 2.17%, Reliance Industries up by 1.83%, Ambuja Cement up by 1.54%, Tata Motors up by 1.20% and Aurobindo Pharma up by 1.19%.

On the flip side, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 2.27%, BPCL down by 1.42%, Coal India down by 1.34%, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 1.04% and Bosch down by 1.02% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 13.07 points or 0.52% to 2,531.32, Taiwan Weighted increased 18.52 points or 0.17% to 10,649.17, Jakarta Composite increased 58.5 points or 0.98% to 6,030.81, Hang Seng increased 182.43 points or 0.63% to 29,034.12 and Nikkei 225 increased 320.29 points or 1.45% to 22,348.61.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite decreased 2.45 points or 0.07% to 3,400.08 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.05 points or 0.12% to 1,720.94.