Benchmarks make flat to positive start

Indian equity benchmarks made flat-to-positive start and somehow managing to keep their head above water in early deals on Wednesday. Traders are taking some encouragement with the World Bank projecting India’s growth rate to 7.3 per cent in 2018 and 7.5 for the next two years. It said that with an “ambitious government undertaking comprehensive reforms”, India has “enormous growth potential” compared to other emerging economies. The 2018 Global Economics Prospect released by the World Bank also said that India, despite initial setbacks from demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), is estimated to have grown at 6.7 per cent in 2017. However, traders remained on sidelines ahead of the outcome of meeting organised by government think tank NITI Aayog, and attended by a host of ministers including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, NITI Aayog functionaries and leading economists.

On the global front, Asian markets are exhibiting mixed trend at this point of time and some of the indices in the region are down by quarter to half a percent, taking a breather as investors consider the impact of a jump in bond yields. The US markets ended at fresh record closing highs in the last session, though major averages were off their best levels of the day, with a lack of major U.S. economic data keeping some traders on the sidelines.

Back home, stocks related to oil companies edged higher, despite the international oil prices hitting their highest levels since 2014. Telecom stocks are ringing loud in early deals, as the Telecom Commission (TC) has decided to relax spectrum holding caps, giving a boost to M&As and spectrum sale. In scrip specific development, Tech Mahindra moved up on entering into partnership with edX.org, while Power Grid advanced on receiving nod to invest Rs 92.13 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34462.97, up by 19.78 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 34431.09 and 34565.63. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.33%, while Small cap index up by 0.41%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.99%, Realty up by 0.90%, Telecom up by 0.65%, Utilities up by 0.65% and Power up by 0.64%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.36%, Auto down by 0.13% and Bankex was down by 0.09% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 1.60%, Adani Ports up by 1.55%, ONGC up by 1.30%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.86% and ITC up by 0.74%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.00%, Tata Steel down by 0.42%, HDFC down by 0.40%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.39% and Wipro down by 0.31% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a major relief for over seven lakh Indian techies working in US, the United States authorities have said that the Donald Trump administration is not considering any proposal that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the country. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it was not considering a regulatory change that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the United States by changing interpretation of section certain language in Section 104 C of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21) statute that states that USCIS may grant the extensions. This provides for H-1B extensions beyond the 6 year limit.

USCIS Chief of Media Relations Jonathan Withington said that even if it were, such a change would not likely result in these H-1B visa holders having to leave the United States because employers could request extensions in one-year increments under section 106(a)-(b) of AC21 instead. He also said that the agency is considering a number of policy and regulatory changes to carry out the Presidents Buy American, Hire American Executive Order, including a thorough review of employment based visa programmes. He said the USCIS was never considering such a policy change and added that any suggestion that USCIS changed its position because of pressure is absolutely false.

The USCIS has a Congressional mandate to issue 65,000 H-1B visas in general category and another 20,000 for those applicants having higher education -- masters and above -- from US universities in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The H-1B programme offers temporary US visas that allow companies to hire highly skilled foreign professionals working in areas with shortages of qualified American workers. Besides, the announcement by the USCIS came days after reports emerged that the Trump administration was considering tightening H-1B visa rules that could lead to deportation of 7,50,000 Indians.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10641.20, up by 4.20 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 10627.90 and 10655.50. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 1.66%, Adani Ports up by 1.45%, Hindalco up by 1.38%, Vedanta up by 1.21% and ONGC up by 1.17%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.11%, Eicher Motors down by 0.79%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.69%, Indiabulls Housing down by 0.53% and Ambuja Cement down by 0.45% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Jakarta Composite rose 3.61 points or 0.06% to 6,376.76, Shanghai Composite increased 11.94 points or 0.35% to 3,425.84 and Hang Seng added 211.78 points or 0.68% to 31,223.19.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted decreased 66.36 points or 0.61% to 10,848.53, Nikkei 225 slipped 30.42 points or 0.13% to 23,819.57, KOSPI Index dipped 6.27 points or 0.25% to 2,503.96 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.97 points or 0.11% to 1,824.98.