Bourses maintain gaining momentum; Metal, Auto stocks surge

Key Indian benchmarks maintained their gaining momentum in late morning session, with Sensex and Nifty holding gains of more than 200 and 60 points, respectively, as available leads showed the BJP having an upperhand in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly polls. Sentiments also remained firm as India’s merchandise exports jumped by 30.55% to $26195.76 million in November 2017, on the back of robust growth in shipments of gems and jewellery and engineering goods. Some support also came with UN expert’s statement that India can achieve an eight percent growth rate for the next two decades by promoting investment and improving the living conditions of its people. Adding some optimism, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the government has decided to recapitalise public sector banks (PSBs) to enhance credit growth and job creation. Moreover, the broader indices were also performing well, with gains of more than 0.70 per cent each, while all the sectoral indices showed optimism except Power index.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, with some of the markets paring early gains despite the positive cues from Wall Street on optimism about Republican lawmakers passing tax reform legislation in the US. The legislation will reduce corporate as well as individual tax rates and is intended to boost growth in the world's largest economy. Back home, in scrip specific development, Steel Strips Wheels (SSWL) was trading higher after the company bagged a new Exports order for supply of Steel wheels for EU Caravan market.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33685.44, up by 222.47 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 32595.63 and 33762.04. 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 0.79%, while Small cap index was up by 0.71%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.73%, Auto up by 1.29%, Consumer Disc up by 1.21%, Healthcare up by 1.03% and Consumer Durables up by 0.85%, while Power down by 0.04% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.50%, Sun Pharma up by 2.10%, ICICI Bank up by 1.37%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.37% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.32%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.65%, NTPC down by 0.65%, ITC down by 0.55%, ONGC down by 0.49% and Wipro down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, reversing the fall witnessed in October, India’s merchandise exports jumped by 30.55% to $26195.76 million in November 2017, on the back of robust growth in shipments of gems and jewellery and engineering goods. However, the overall trade deficit widened to $13829.20 million in November 2017 as against $13395.61 million in the year-ago period. The trade deficit during April-November 2017-18, was $99976.86 million as against $67886.19 million in the same period last year. 

As per the data released by the Commerce Ministry, exports grew by 30.55% to $26195.76 million in November 2017, as compared to $20066.26 million in the same month a year ago. In Rupee terms exports was higher by 25.21% to Rs 169912.50 crore in November 2017, as compared to Rs 135699.47 crore in November 2016. Cumulative value of exports for the period April-November 2017-18 was $196482.31 million as against $175410.66 million, registering a positive growth of 12.01% over the same period last year. In Rupee terms it was up by 7.90% to Rs 1267771.18 crore from Rs 1174997.07 crore.

Non-petroleum and Non Gems & Jewellery exports in November 2017 were valued at $19247.56 million against $15104.42 million in November 2016, an increase of 27.43%. Non-petroleum and Non Gems and Jewellery exports during April-November 2017-18 were valued at $143528.58 million as compared to $126660.74 million for the corresponding period in 2016-17, an increase of 13.32%.

Imports during November 2017, increased by 19.61% to $40024.96 million as compared to  $33461.87 million in November 2016 and in rupee terms it was up by 14.73% to Rs 259612.29 crore from Rs 226288.21 crore in November 2016. Cumulative value of imports for the period April- November 2017-18 was $296459.17 million as against $243296.85 million, registering a positive growth of 21.85% over the same period last year. In rupee terms the cumulative value of imports was Rs 1913047.30 crore, up by 17.35% as against Rs 1630199.71 crore in the same period last year.

Oil imports during November, 2017 were valued at $9550.97 million which was 39.14% higher than oil imports valued at $6864.25 million in November 2016. Oil imports during April- November, 2017-18 were valued at $65802.97 million which was 22.65% higher than the oil imports of $53652.71 million in the corresponding period last year. Non-oil imports during November, 2017 were estimated at $30473.99 million which was 14.57% higher than non-oil imports of $26597.62 million in November, 2016. Non-oil imports during April- November 2017-18 were valued at $230656.20 million which was 21.63% higher than the level of such imports valued at $189644.14 in April- November, 2016-17.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10397.65, up by 64.40 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 10074.80 and 10429.10. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.62%, Vedanta up by 3.15%, Cipla up by 2.78%, GAIL India up by 2.24% and Sun Pharma up by 2.08%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.43%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 1.22%, ONGC down by 0.96%, HPCL down by 0.95% and BPCL down by 0.87% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Jakarta Composite decreased 30.62 points or 0.5% to 6,088.80, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 3.43 points or 0.2% to 1,749.64, Shanghai Composite decreased 1.89 points or 0.06% to 3,264.25 and KOSPI Index decreased 1.18 points or 0.05% to 2,480.89.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted increased 15.08 points or 0.14% to 10,506.52, Hang Seng increased 209.09 points or 0.72% to 29,057.20 and Nikkei 225 increased 367.42 points or 1.63% to 22,920.64.