Markets manage to bounce from lows

Adding some gains, the local benchmarks managed to bounce from lows in late afternoon session, supported by higher Asian markets. Metals, Realty and Basic Materials stocks rallied with notable gains, while investors booked profits in banking and PSU sectors on the BSE. Traders were taking encouragement with EEPC India new chairman, Ravi P Sehgal’s statement that the year 2018 is expected to be a good year for exports, as it promises to be full of opportunities and growth for the Indian exporters, on the back of improving global trade. Some support also came with credit rating agency, ICRA’s latest report stating that the retail credit growth for non-banking financial companies is likely to be moderate at 16-18 percent in the current fiscal, helped by some asset classes, such as SME credit. However, the government decision to make additional borrowing of Rs 50,000 crore this fiscal through dated securities, were keeping the traders worried. This move may put burden on the fiscal deficit target of 3.2 percent of GDP. 

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in red, amid a light holiday-week of trade seen across markets worldwide. However, Asian markets were trading in green. Back home, in scrip specific development, Trent gained after the company’s wholly owned subsidiary-- Fiora Hypermarket (FHL) incorporated a subsidiary namely, Fiora Online (FOL) on December 28, 2017.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33982.61, up by 70.80 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 33883.62 and 34003.28. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.23%, while Small cap index was up by 0.55%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.56%, Metal up by 2.09%, Basic Materials up by 1.13%, Telecom up by 0.75% and Consumer Durables up by 0.60%, while PSU down by 0.19% and Bankex down by 0.18% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.52%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.35%, Tata Steel up by 1.29%, Coal India up by 0.95% and TCS up by 0.91%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.25%, Sun Pharma down by 1.06%, SBI down by 1.03%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.96% and Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.51% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, raising hopes for export growth in the coming year, Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) India’s, new chairman Ravi P Sehgal has said that the year 2018 is expected to be a good year for exports, as it promises to be full of opportunities and growth for the Indian exporters, on the back of improving global trade.  However, he also expressed need to focus on competitive pricing and technological strength of exports, in order to achieve the expected growth.

EEPC India chairman also stressed the need of being on guard against increasing protectionism in the top economies. Going further, he ensured that his organization along with the commerce ministry will work together on policy issues that may act as barriers to shipments and will also look on exporters' GST refund related issues, seeking cooperation and support from the finance ministry.

He added that we have to ensure that our exporters should not miss out any global opportunity for the sake of cash flow and this is possible only when the GST glitches are removed. Besides, Sehgal said that Indian exporters need to fully exploit robust trade growth of the world in 2018, noting that US, Eurozone, Japan and China markets are very important destinations for the Indian export basket, including the engineering goods.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10519.05, up by 28.30 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 10486.25 and 10525.90. There were 30 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index, while 2 stocks remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.86%, UPL up by 3.61%, Lupin up by 1.54%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.51% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.46%. On the flip side, SBI down by 1.54%, Axis Bank down by 1.45%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.10%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 0.95% and BPCL down by 0.95% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Jakarta Composite increased 3.53 points or 0.06% to 6,280.69, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 9.06 points or 0.51% to 1,780.82, Shanghai Composite increased 20.6 points or 0.63% to 3,296.39, KOSPI Index increased 30.82 points or 1.26% to 2,467.49, Taiwan Weighted increased 80.97 points or 0.77% to 10,567.64 and Hang Seng increased 266.05 points or 0.9% to 29,863.71. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 127.23 points or 0.56% to 22,783.98.

European markets were trading mostly in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 28.9 points or 0.22% to 13,041.12 and France’s CAC decreased 12.11 points or 0.23% to 5,356.73. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 3.47 points or 0.05% to 7,624.15.