Bourses remain strong with notable gains

The local benchmarks remained strong in late afternoon session, with the gains of around half a percent, tracking firm European markets. Strong Asian cues along with sustained buying in Healthcare, Capital Goods and IT stocks, also helped the indices to maintain rally in noon deals. Sentiments remained upbeat with the Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) Bibek Debroy’s statement that the estimated figures are mirroring the success of reform measures undertaken by the Government in the terms of yield, as 6.5% for the full year means that Q3 and Q4 numbers will be far better than first half of the year. The markets also took note of NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar’s statement that it's an achievement that even after huge reforms like GST and demonetisation, India's GDP didn't face such reduction as in the early 90's. Besides, Agriculture Ministry’s hopes for higher agriculture sector growth, too supported sentiments. The agriculture ministry said that the country's agriculture sector is expected to grow higher than projected 2.1% growth by the CSO for the current fiscal, following better rabi crop prospects. Meanwhile, after a long gap, bank’s credit has registered a double digit growth of 10.65% to Rs 80.96 lakh crore as on December 22, 2017, mainly because of the base effect.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in green, amid bets on synchronised global economic growth, robust corporate earnings and supportive central banks. Asian markets were also trading in green. Back home, in scrip specific development, Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) gained after its joint venture bags contract worth Rs 484 crore for Pune Metro Rail Project.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34336.94, up by 183.09 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 34216.33 and 34374.85. There were 23 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.96%, while Small cap index was up by 0.86%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.47%, Capital Goods up by 1.28%, IT up by 1.04%, Industrials up by 0.84% and Realty up by 0.73%, while Telecom down by 2.53% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 3.00%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.77%, Coal India up by 1.70%, Infosys up by 1.54% and Indusind Bank up by 1.25%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 4.21%, ONGC down by 0.40%, Asian Paints down by 0.32%, Tata Steel down by 0.21% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.17% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing his views on the advance GDP growth estimate of 6.5 % for the current fiscal year by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) Bibek Debroy has said that the estimated figures are mirroring the success of reform measures undertaken by the Government in the terms of yield, as 6.5% for the full year means that Q3 and Q4 numbers will be far better than first half of the year.

Debroy expects GDP growth to be higher than 6.5% in Q3 and to reach close to 7% in Q4 and further noted the growth will be more than 7% in the next fiscal year, on the back of the government’s reform measures. He also expects pick-up in growth in private investments and exports. However, Debroy said that the indirect tax collections will be the main driver to lead economic growth, adding that the several indicators like PMI and eight core sector industries have already shown signs of improvement.

The EAC-PM Chairman further said that the advance estimate numbers only reinforce what was already known, that several measures undertaken by the Government will place the economy firmly on an upward growth trajectory, without compromising on fiscal consolidation.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10610.65, up by 51.80 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 10588.55 and 10623.20. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 3.01%, Lupin up by 2.49%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.98%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.75% and Coal India up by 1.69%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 4.17%, ONGC down by 0.78%, Asian Paints down by 0.53%, SBI down by 0.26% and HCL Tech. down by 0.22% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 11.53 points or 0.63% to 1,829.50, KOSPI Index increased 15.76 points or 0.63% to 2,513.28, Shanghai Composite increased 17.73 points or 0.52% to 3,409.48, Jakarta Composite increased 20.29 points or 0.32% to 6,374.03, Taiwan Weighted increased 35.95 points or 0.33% to 10,915.75 and Hang Seng increased 84.89 points or 0.28% to 30,899.53.

European markets were trading mostly in green; France’s CAC increased 11.69 points or 0.21% to 5,482.44 and Germany’s DAX increased 43.89 points or 0.33% to 13,363.53. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 7.78 points or 0.1% to 7,716.44.