Bourses soar to day’s high; Reliance Industries takes the lead

Extending their early gains, the local equity markets reached at intra-day high levels in early afternoon session amid value-buying witnessed in Energy, IT and Telecom stocks. Sentiments on the street remained upbeat 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. Markets also drew some solace with CEA Arvind Subramanian’s statement that the rate cuts by the Council will not have any major impact on government's revenue and no major effect on India's fiscal deficit. At day’s high points, the frontline gauges were trading comfortably above the crucial 10,150 (Nifty) and 33,000 (Sensex) marks. In scrip specific development, CRISIL was up by around a percent after executing binding agreements to acquire 100% of the equity share capital of Pragmatix Services at a consideration not exceeding Rs 56 crore.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, even as Wall Street stumbled despite upbeat US economic news. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33004.88, up by 244.44 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 32829.82 and 33012.60. 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 0.65%, while Small cap index was up by 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 1.08%, IT up by 0.97%, Telecom up by 0.90%, TECK up by 0.85% and FMCG up by 0.77%, while Realty down by 0.09% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 2.02%, Infosys up by 1.98%, Tata Motors up by 1.55%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.47% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.26%. On the flip side, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.15%, Coal India down by 1.60%, Sun Pharma down by 1.20%, Cipla down by 0.12% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.04% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Steel has said that it wants to bring down the import duty on stainless steel scrap to zero, along with ferro-nickel, after removal of import duty on nickel. In this regard, the steel ministry has already made a request to the finance ministry. Currently, both stainless steel scrap and ferro-nickel, key raw materials for stainless steel manufacturing, attract an import duty of 2.5%. 

Acknowledging the steps being taken by the ministry to protect the interests of domestic steel industry, president of industry body Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA) K K Pahuja has said that if the import duty on ferro-nickel and stainless steel scrap is removed it will bring down the cost of production of stainless steel in the country. He also said that important elements like nickel and chromium are already present in stainless steel scrap, so the stainless steel industry will not need to get the two components, which will save time as well as cost of production. In addition, he noted that when stainless steel is made with mild steel, these two components are added, so, removal of import duty on stainless steel scrap along with ferro-nickel will be a win-win situation.

Adding further, Pahuja said that it will also create a new market for manufacturing of various stainless steel products such stainless steel pipes for use in water supply. He indicated that at present, in water supply galvanised steel pipes are used which catch leakages and are not corrosion-free so bacteria also develops in them and this leads to wastage of water and at times causes health issues. Besides, he said that the plastic pipes get crack and catch fungus and algae and added that introduction of stainless steel pipes in water supply and storage will address these issues. He noted that the life of stainless steel pipes will be more and maintenance cost will be near to zero.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10189.45, up by 71.40 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 10139.20 and 10190.35. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 3.48%, Infosys up by 2.27%, Reliance Industries up by 2.00%, UPL up by 1.93% and Tata Motors up by 1.49%. On the flip side, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.21%, Coal India down by 1.82%, BPCL down by 1.33%, Sun Pharma down by 1.05% and Bosch down by 0.45% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased 1.6 points or 0.05% to 3,404.12, KOSPI Index rose 15.51 points or 0.62% to 2,533.76, Jakarta Composite added 58.11 points or 0.97% to 6,030.42, Hang Seng was up by 197.97 points or 0.69% to 29,049.66 and Nikkei 225 surged 322.8 points or 1.47% to 22,351.12.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted decreased 5.61 points or 0.05% to 10,625.04 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 4.55 points or 0.26% to 1,718.44.