Indian bourses continue to trade in positive territory

Key benchmark indices continued to trade in positive territory in early afternoon session, on account of buying in frontline counters. Sentiments remained positive with former vice-chairman of NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya’s statement that the economy will grow by over 6.5 per cent in the current financial year. He said the macroeconomic indicators have remained stable for the past three years with current account deficit hovering around one per cent and inflation moderating. Besides, appreciation in Indian rupee against dollars together with buying in IT, TECK and Metal stocks, too helped the key indices to trade in the positive zone. However, gains in the domestic equities were capped as investors remained cautious ahead of Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy review on December 6. In scrip specific development, Steel Strips Wheels (SSWL) was up by over four and half percent on reporting 8% rise in its total wheel rim sales to 12.92 lakh in November 2017, as compared to 11.99 lakh in November 2016.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, with US politics in focus. Investors were digested the US Senate’s passage of the tax bill and considering implications of the guilty plea by President Donald Trump’s former US national security adviser. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32948.92, up by 115.98 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 32785.76 and 33008.47. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.05%, while Small cap index was up by 0.02%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.62%, TECK up by 1.44%, Metal up by 1.04%, Capital Goods up by 0.45% and Industrials up by 0.40%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.62%, Energy down by 0.31%, Consumer Disc down by 0.14%, Power down by 0.06% and Bankex down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 3.70%, Tata Motors up by 2.09%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.49%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.46% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.31%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.45%, Asian Paints down by 0.97%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.77%, Sun Pharma down by 0.71% and Reliance Industries down by 0.64% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, a joint study of industry body Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) and research firm RNCOS has stated that Indian healthcare sector is likely to witness threefold jump as its size in value terms may to reach $372 billion by the year 2022 from $110 billion in 2016. Thus, it noted that the healthcare sector will clock a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22 percent. As per the report, growing lifestyle diseases, rising demand for affordable healthcare delivery systems due to increasing healthcare costs, emergence of telemedicine, rapid health insurance penetration, mergers and acquisitions helping to reach untapped markets and government initiatives are driving healthcare market in India.

The Assocham-RNCOS study further stated that the medical devices market in India, which was valued at $4 billion as of 2016, is likely to cross $11 billion mark by 2022 on the back of factors such as growing geriatric population, uptick in medical tourism and gradual decline in cost of medical services. However, it noted that imports make up about 75 percent of Indian medical devices market.

With regards to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) impact on pharma industry, the report said the new tax regime will streamline taxation structure as also lead to ease of doing business by minimising cascading effect of many taxes applied to a product, rationalise supply chain, enable flow of seamless tax credit, lower manufacturing cost and cost of technology and make healthcare affordable. It also highlighted that increasing expenditure on research and development (R&D), rising collaborations between Indian and foreign companies, reduction in product approval time and other such factors are driving the growth of Indian pharmaceutical market.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10154.90, up by 33.10 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 10095.70 and 10179.20. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 3.57%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.56%, Tata Motors up by 2.18%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 2.18% and Zee Entertainment up by 2.16%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 1.70%, Coal India down by 1.47%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.43%, UPL down by 1.24% and Yes Bank down by 1.08% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mixed; KOSPI Index increased 26.26 points or 1.06% to 2,501.67, Taiwan Weighted was up by 50.74 points or 0.48% to 10,651.11, Jakarta Composite surged 56.97 points or 0.96% to 6,009.11 and Hang Seng rose 111.78 points or 0.38% to 29,186.02. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 111.87 points or 0.49% to 22,707.16, Shanghai Composite was down by 10.62 points or 0.32% to 3,307.00 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 6.5 points or 0.38% to 1,711.36.