Markets hover near day’s high

The local equity benchmarks were hovering near their intraday high levels in late afternoon session, with Sensex gaining more than 200 points. The markets got support from gains in industry heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services and Axis Bank. Investors were taking support with a report enlightening that a greater proportion of provident fund savings could be headed for the stock market with shares rising to successive records in past weeks. Such a move could more than double the provident fund money invested in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) over time. Besides, broadly positive Asian cues, coupled with healthy buying in Energy, IT and Realty stocks, pushed key equity indices to trade at fresh highs during the late noon deals. Traders paid no heed towards the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) report stating that India ranked at the 62nd place among emerging economies on an Inclusive Development Index, much below China's 26th position and Pakistan's 47th.

On the global front, European markets were trading mixed, as investors monitored a US government shutdown and political developments in Germany. Germany's Social Democrats voted to enter coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, helping end months of political uncertainty in Europe's largest economy. In another development, French President Emmanuel Macron said it would be possible for Britain to secure a bespoke trade deal if the UK accepts certain ‘preconditions’. Asian markets were trading in green. Back home, in scrip specific development, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was trading higher after the company launched the second Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) of a series of seven OPVs for the Indian Coast Guard at the company’s greenfield defence shipyard at Kattupalli, near Chennai.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35719.01, up by 207.43 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 35544.68 and 35749.03. There were 15 stocks advancing against 16 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 0.59%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 2.01%, IT up by 1.62%, Realty up by 1.08%, TECK up by 1.04% and Capital Goods up by 0.84%, while Telecom down by 1.56%, Metal down by 1.05%, Utilities down by 0.65%, PSU down by 0.44% and FMCG down by 0.17% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 5.26%, Axis Bank up by 4.54%, Reliance Industries up by 3.98%, ONGC up by 2.89% and Yes Bank up by 1.84%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.34%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.03%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.66%, Asian Paints down by 1.42% and ICICI Bank down by 1.34% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, highlighting benefit of digital infrastructure to achieve the goal of trebling Gross domestic product (GDP) to $7.5 trillion over the next five years, Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan has said that India needs three-fold increase in digital infra over next five years and noted that the country can emerge as a digital leader at the global level.

Telecom Secretary stated that the government will play a facilitating role for making this happen so that the private sector takes the lead in investing. She also listed the government’s efforts on both data protection as well as data security, adding that its department is currently finalising the new telecom policy which will come out in this year. Apart from digital infra, she has also expressed need to adopt a liberal approach, embrace open source and an open culture like the information technology sector have done.

Sundararajan mentioned that government is aggressively working towards introducing the fifth generation telecom networks and the reliance on cloud will make open-source very critical. Telecom Secretary also appreciated the new entrant -Reliance Jio for its aggressive play with setting new benchmarks on the aspirations front. She said Jio has seized the opportunity available by creating appropriate products and services, and also created thousands of jobs.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10933.05, up by 38.35 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 10881.40 and 10944.95. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were TCS up by 5.02%, Axis Bank up by 4.18%, Reliance Industries up by 3.78%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 3.61% and ONGC up by 3.10%. On the flip side, HPCL down by 3.47%, GAIL India down by 2.92%, Wipro down by 2.58%, BPCL down by 2.28% and Hindalco down by 2.02% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.21 points or 0.12% to 1,831.04, Nikkei 225 increased 8.27 points or 0.03% to 23,816.33, Shanghai Composite increased 13.5 points or 0.39% to 3,501.36, Jakarta Composite increased 25.96 points or 0.4% to 6,516.85, Taiwan Weighted increased 80.61 points or 0.72% to 11,231.46 and Hang Seng increased 138.52 points or 0.43% to 32,393.41. On the flip side, KOSPI Index decreased 18.15 points or 0.72% to 2,502.11.

European markets were trading mixed; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 11.29 points or 0.15% to 7,719.50 and France’s CAC decreased 8.76 points or 0.16% to 5,517.75. On the flip side, Germany’s DAX increased 4.49 points or 0.03% to 13,438.94.