Local bourses enter into green territory in noon deals

The local barometer gauges erased their all losses and entered into green territory in early afternoon session, on the back of buying appeared in Realty, IT and TECK stocks. The sentiments turned optimistic with global rating agency Moody's latest report, which has said India and China remain the fastest growth economies in Asia Pacific region. Some support also came with Crisil Ratings’ latest report stating that India Inc’s top-line (revenue) growth is likely to hit a five-year high of 9 percent in Q3 (October-December) 2017-18. However, gains were limited as investors adopted a cautious approach ahead of announcement of key corporate results and release of key macroeconomic. In the currency front, rupee dropped 11 paise to 63.71 against the US dollar in early trade after the American currency gained traction among importers. In scrip specific development, Bodhtree Consulting surged by over two percent after receiving Letter of Intent (LOI) for the project worth Rs 8.38 crore from Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Dehradun.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, following the US administration's protectionist stance on pulling out North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) affecting Wall Street. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34481.36, up by 48.29 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 34400.61 and 34484.85. There were 16 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.52%, while Small cap index was up by 0.88%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.94%, IT up by 0.79%, TECK up by 0.68%, Telecom up by 0.66% and Healthcare up by 0.57%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.31%, Metal down by 0.26%, Energy down by 0.25%, Capital Goods down by 0.22% and PSU down by 0.03% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.52%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.33%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.23%, Sun Pharma up by 0.98% and Asian Paints up by 0.80%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.04%, Axis Bank down by 1.03%, ICICI Bank down by 0.83%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.63% and Wipro down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to double farmer's income, the Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI) president Rajju Shroff has said that India needs to push its agricultural exports to $120 billion by the year 2022 from the present $36 billion. Globally, the country ranks second in agriculture production but it ranks eighth in exports, well behind Thailand and Indonesia. Besides, he stated that they have urged the government to increase focus on trebling India's share in agriculture exports to double farmer’s income by 2022.

Shroff has said that over the past few months, they have appealed to the agriculture ministry, commerce ministry and institutions like APEDA, NITI Aayog to arrest the steady decline in India's agriculture exports and the sharp increase in imports. He also said that domestic agricultural commodities face stiff non-tariff barriers in many developed countries that either refuse or restrict their agriculture exports. He also wrote off farm loans and increasing Minimum Support Prices (MSP) as not sustainable.

CCFI president further said that they urgently need to create a single authority to monitor agricultural exports and imports keeping a hawk eye on both. Currently, they have multiple authorities with poor co-ordination and dismal results. He pointed out that foreign-funded environmental activists pose the single biggest threat to the progress of Indian agriculture. He added that a spurt in India's agricultural exports can boost rural employment, income and purchasing power. That apart, he believes that it will also spruce up allied activities in storage, transportation and processing.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10641.45, up by 9.25 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 10612.35 and 10642.55. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 2.39%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.47%, Infosys up by 1.36%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.26% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.23%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 1.29%, Coal India down by 1.12%, Axis Bank down by 1.09%, Cipla down by 1.08% and BPCL down by 1.04% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 was down by 77.77 points or 0.33% to 23,710.43, Taiwan Weighted shed 21.03 points or 0.19% to 10,810.06, KOSPI Index dipped 11.84 points or 0.47% to 2,487.91, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 7.7 points or 0.42% to 1,815.22, Jakarta Composite decreased 6.31 points or 0.1% to 6,364.86 and Shanghai Composite was down by 0.22 points or 0.01% to 3,421.62.

On the flip side, Hang Seng was up by 10.06 points or 0.03% to 31,083.78.