Bulls tighten grip on Dalal Street

Bulls tightened their grip on Dalal Street with Sensex comfortably trading above its crucial 33,000 level, while Nifty gaining more than 80 points, backed by firm opening in European markets. In the extremely buoyant session, traders took support with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India's economic slowdown has bottomed out and now it should start moving upwards after recovering from the ‘temporary blip’ seen during the recent structural changes. Adding some optimism, a private report stated that the demand for quality goods and services is increasing in rural India reflecting improvement in living standards.  Besides, 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, also kept the markets in positive mood. Meanwhile, merchant exporters can start claiming tax refunds using the new utility that will be activated on the GST Network portal tonight.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, as investors monitored earnings and key data releases. Asian markets were also trading in green. Back home, in scrip specific development, NTPC gained after the company’s arm - Patratu Vidyut Utpadan Nigam (PVUNL) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) signed a loan agreement for establishing the 3x800 MW Patratu Super Thermal Power Project Phase-I in Jharkhand.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33053.66, up by 293.22 points or 0.90% after trading in a range of 32829.82 and 33079.10. There were 26 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.85%, while Small cap index was up by 0.83%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.10%, TECK up by 1.84%, Telecom up by 1.42%, Metal up by 1.05% and Power up by 1.01%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 3.81%, SBI up by 1.95%, Reliance Industries up by 1.93%, TCS up by 1.62% and Tata Motors up by 1.31%. On the flip side, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.27%, Coal India down by 1.45%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.60%, Cipla down by 0.34% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.26% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing need of effective implementation of policies in the country, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) President Anil Khaitan has said that  ease of doing business scenario in India has not improved, as the country is still facing challenges like corruption at lower levels. He further noted that after the announcement of policies if they are not getting implemented, then they come in the category of dead policies and so the government should ‘walk its talk’ in implementation of policies.

PHDCCI President predicted that gross domestic product (GDP) growth will remain lower in the range of 5.7%-5.9% in the September quarter and 6%-6.5% in the entire fiscal, due to sluggish investment by the private sector and below par growth rate of exports. However, Anil Khaitan expects a robust GDP growth in January-March quarter of 2019 and improvement in the private investment cycle from January-March 2019.

While talking about the initiatives taken by the government, PHDCCI President noted though the demonetization have improved the government’s tax revenue which it never received, it will take at least another 14 months for businesses to tide over the negative impact of demonetization. He further terming the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as an ‘excellent tax’, raised need of simplification in it for businesses.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10198.60, up by 80.55 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 10139.20 and 10211.65. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 4.02%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.99%, SBI up by 2.03%, Reliance Industries up by 1.97% and Aurobindo Pharma up by 1.85%. On the flip side, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 1.99%, Coal India down by 1.56%, BPCL down by 1.22%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.89% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.66% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 16.54 points or 0.66% to 2,534.79, Jakarta Composite increased 77.33 points or 1.29% to 6,049.65, Hang Seng increased 167.07 points or 0.58% to 29,018.76 and Nikkei 225 increased 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, Shanghai Composite decreased 3.27 points or 0.1% to 3,399.25 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.93 points or 0.17% to 1,720.06.

All European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 0.82 points or 0.01% to 7,373.43, France’s CAC increased 22.83 points or 0.43% to 5,324.08 and Germany’s DAX increased 63.22 points or 0.49% to 13,039.59.