Firm trade persists; Sensex gains over 200 points

Key Indian benchmarks continued to trade in green territory in late morning session, with Sensex rallying more than 200 points, aided by optimism among other Asian markets. Traders were taking some encouragement with the PwC’s Survey report stating that India has emerged as the fifth most attractive market for investments and the optimism over global economic growth is at a record level. The markets maintained their positive mood with International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) projection that India will grow at 7.4% in 2018 as against China’s 6.8%, making it the fastest growing country among emerging economies following last year's slowdown due to demonetisation and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). It has also projected a 7.8% growth rate for India in 2019. Some support also came with report that India has moved up on a global index of talent competitiveness to the 81st position, but remains a laggard among the BRICS nations. Besides, the broader markets also gained, following the larger peers rally. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, following the overnight gains on Wall Street after Senators reached a deal to end a three-day US government shutdown. Back home, in scrip specific development, HSIL was trading higher after the company commenced the commercial production of first phase of small size caps and closures plant situated at Packaging Products Division, AGI clozures, Survey No.208 to 218, Sitarampur Village, Isnapur, Patancheru Mandal, Sangareddy District, Telangana with effect from January 22, 2018.
 
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36020.46, up by 222.45 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 35863.98 and 36060.71. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 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 1.22%, while Small cap index was up by 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 4.55%, Basic Materials up by 1.78%, Energy up by 1.48%, Oil & Gas up by 1.47% and PSU up by 1.38%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.62%, Infosys up by 2.23%, SBI up by 1.88%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.85% and Indusind Bank up by 1.50%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.42%, Wipro down by 0.95%, Tata Motors down by 0.77%, HDFC Bank down by 0.46% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.41% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has ranked India at 62nd position among the emerging economies on an Inclusive Development Index, much below China’s 26th position and even Pakistan’s 47th. It highlighted that Norway remains the world's most inclusive advanced economy, while Lithuania again tops the list of emerging economies. Besides, it noted that last year, India had been ranked 60th among 79 developing economies, while China and Pakistan occupied the 15th rank and 52nd position, respectively.

As per the WEF, the index takes into account the living standards, environmental sustainability and protection of future generations from further indebtedness. It also urged the leaders to urgently move to a new model of inclusive growth and development, saying reliance on GDP as a measure of economic achievement is fuelling short-termism and inequality. The 2018 index, which measures progress of 103 economies on three individual pillars -- growth and development; inclusion; and inter-generational equity -- has been divided into two parts. The first part covers 29 advanced economies and the second 74 emerging economies. The index has also classified the countries into five sub-categories in terms of the five-year trend of their overall Inclusive Development Growth score -- receding, slowly receding, stable, slowly advancing and advancing.

The WEF pointed out that despite its low overall score, India is among the ten emerging economies with ‘advancing’ trend and noted that only two advanced economies have shown ‘advancing’ trend. Among advanced economies, Norway is followed by Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Denmark in the top five. Adding further, it found that decades of prioritising economic growth over social equity has led to historically high levels of wealth and income inequality and caused governments to miss out on a virtuous circle in which growth is strengthened by being shared more widely and generated without unduly straining the environment or burdening future generations. It added that excessive reliance by economists and policy-makers on Gross Domestic Product as the primary metric of national economic performance is part of the problem.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11040.25, up by 74.05 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 10994.55 and 11053.05. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 5.14%, Vedanta up by 5.05%, Tata Steel up by 3.58%, Indian Oil Corporation up by 2.75% and Cipla up by 2.40%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 1.93%, Eicher Motors down by 1.61%, Ambuja Cement down by 1.56%, Asian Paints down by 1.32% and Bosch down by 1.28% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased 12.54 points or 0.36% to 3,513.91, Taiwan Weighted increased 21.65 points or 0.19% to 11,253.11, KOSPI Index increased 27.31 points or 1.09% to 2,529.42, Jakarta Composite increased 65.16 points or 1% to 6,565.69, Hang Seng increased 279.73 points or 0.86% to 32,673.14 and Nikkei 225 increased 300.82 points or 1.26% to 24,117.15.

On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 0.84 points or 0.05% to 1,832.31.