Firm trade persists; Sensex gains 150 points

Key Indian benchmarks remained firm in late morning session, with Sensex gaining 150 points, amid positive Asian cues. All the sectoral indices were showing optimism except Metal index, with Telecom stocks contributing the most to the indices’ gains. Traders were taking some encouragement with the credit rating agency’ monthly review report stating that early indicators for November 2017 signal rebound in industrial growth. As per the report, the performance of ten of the 16 early volume-based indicators improved sequentially in November 2017. The markets were also getting support from Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister Bibek Debroy’s statement that India is expected to be a $ 6.5-7 trillion economy by 2030, and at the current exchange rate it would touch $ 10 trillion by 2035-40. Investors paid no heed towards the  IMF’s report that India’s financial sector is facing considerable challenges with high non-performing assets and slow deleveraging and repair of corporate balance sheets testing the resilience of the banking system and holding back growth.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, following the positive lead from Wall Street on optimism about the economic impact of the recently passed US tax bill and upbeat economic data. In addition, resources stocks got a boost from higher commodity prices. Back home, in scrip specific development, Steel Strips Wheels (SSWL) gained after the company bagged exports order for supply of Steel wheels for Egyptian passenger car market.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33907.16, up by 150.88 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 33767.73 and 33954.57. There were 21 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.36%, while Small cap index was up by 0.73%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.11%, IT up by 0.82%, Realty up by 0.77%, TECK up by 0.77% and Industrials up by 0.68%, while Metal down by 0.53% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.34%, ONGC up by 1.89%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.62%, SBI up by 1.58% and Infosys up by 1.12%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.83%, Coal India down by 0.73%, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.59%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.41% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.34% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the e-auction of the third batch of the private FM Radio Phase-III has received the cabinet approval, completing the coverage of private FM radio broadcasting across all States and six Union Territories. The auction in third batch will allow a rollout of a large number of cities across the country that have no private FM radio channels, which include several cities in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir and North-East States, where the population is less than one lakh.

The Cabinet approved conducting of auction of 683 radio frequencies in 236 cities in subsequent batches, which will help expand the presence of FM radio in more cities and is expected to generate a revenue of Rs 1,100 crore for the government. The government said, the auction will also cover cities in Left Wing Extremism affected districts of the country and will provide FM radio coverage to new cities, and better choice of content to listeners.

The first and second batch auctions of Private FM Radio stations under Phase III of the FM policy were conducted in 2015 and 2016 respectively. While 97 channels were sold in 56 cities in Batch-1, 66 channels in 48 cities were sold in Batch-II. The first batch of Phase 3 auction generated revenue of Rs1,187 crore, while the government had earned Rs 200.24 crore in the second batch of FM Phase 3 auction. However, the government had made more than Rs3,000 crore from these auctions with the migration fee from 245 stations that moved from Phase 2 to Phase 3.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10474.65, up by 34.35 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 10448.25 and 10492.35. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.15%, ONGC up by 1.84%, SBI up by 1.59%, Infosys up by 1.11% and TCS up by 1.09%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 1.04%, Lupin down by 0.95%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.92%, Coal India down by 0.67% and Tata Steel down by 0.64% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.46 points or 0.03% to 1,751.67, Shanghai Composite increased 2.59 points or 0.08% to 3,302.65, Nikkei 225 increased 4.72 points or 0.02% to 22,870.82, KOSPI Index increased 11.62 points or 0.48% to 2,441.45, Taiwan Weighted increased 48.3 points or 0.46% to 10,537.27 and Hang Seng increased 106.3 points or 0.36% to 29,473.36.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 11.3 points or 0.18% to 6,172.09.