Bourses manage to trade above neutral lines

In a volatile session, Key Indian benchmarks managed to trade above their neutral lines in late morning session, supported by continuous buying in IT and TECK stocks. Traders were taking some comfort from Niti Aayog’s former vice chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement that India is headed to become the world’s fifth largest economy and it has the potential to achieve 10% growth rate. Some relief also came with the Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu’s statement that the increasing middle class would be the main driver of India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the coming years. Besides, Union minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that there is a huge appetite for continuous surge in foreign investments in India with no comparable opportunity available worldwide, also gave some solace to market-men. Separately, expressing confidence about growth potential in Indian economy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the country may be among the top three largest economies in the world over the period of next 25 years as it had already shown its capacity to grow even in adverse conditions. He also said that India stood as an exception in a world where most countries had started to increasingly look inwards.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, despite US stocks closing mostly higher overnight on upbeat corporate earnings results, while the US dollar fell to three-year lows. Concerns over trade wars weighed on investors’ sentiments. Back home, in scrip specific development, Salasar Techno Engineering zoomed after the company received a new additional order worth Rs 94 crore from Reliance Jio, which has emerged as one of the major telecom players in India.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36184.85, up by 44.87 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 36036.51 and 36268.19. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.42%, while Small cap index was down by 0.55%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.90%, TECK up by 1.72%, FMCG up by 0.13% and Healthcare up by 0.07%, while Telecom down by 2.63%, Consumer Durables down by 1.26%, Metal down by 1.05%, Basic Materials down by 0.93% and Energy down by 0.83% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 3.51%, Infosys up by 2.47%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.78%, Yes Bank up by 1.60% and ITC up by 1.39%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 4.65%, Tata Motors down by 2.28%, ICICI Bank down by 1.74%, Asian Paints down by 1.68% and Tata Steel down by 1.64% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has said that the increasing middle class would be the main driver of India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the coming years. He also indicated that with the large population of India, about 65 percent below the age of 35, the need of the hour of is to take full advantage of this demographic number by creating adequate job opportunities for the young population. Besides, he said that merely turning out lakhs of students with degrees is not enough and added that they must be taught life skills.

Naidu has stated that while India must improve its tax-to-GDP ratio and curb tax evasion, there should be no needless harassment of tax-payers. He also said that the country needs to ramp up its tax-to-GDP ratio, currently at 16.6 percent, to fund a modern, twenty-first century government which can offer basic public facilities and social security to its citizens. Regarding the government’s ambitious Rs 2.11 lakh crore bank recapitalisation plan, he believed that such move is expected to improve the credit growth and private sector investment. He also noted that introduction of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has strengthened creditors’ rights.

Vice president further highlighted that one of the major objectives of both demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime was to increase tax compliance. He pointed out that the expansion of formal economy will lead to increased tax collection and higher revenues, which will be used to accelerate development by building essential infrastructure. He noted that while tax evasion has to be dealt with sternly, it should be ensured that there is no unnecessary harassment of tax payers by overzealous officials. He added that the GST has changed the face of the indirect tax regime as it brings one tax instead of multiplicity of taxes.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11090.85, up by 7.15 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 11046.15 and 11110.10. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech. up by 3.53%, TCS up by 3.51%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.20%, GAIL India up by 2.64% and Infosys up by 2.36%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 4.94%, Tata Motors down by 2.25%, Asian Paints down by 1.86%, Hindalco down by 1.85% and ICICI Bank down by 1.82% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 164.16 points or 0.68% to 23,959.99, Taiwan Weighted decreased 100.95 points or 0.9% to 11,152.16, Jakarta Composite decreased 20.11 points or 0.3% to 6,615.22, Hang Seng decreased 18.07 points or 0.05% to 32,912.63, KOSPI Index decreased 1.66 points or 0.07% to 2,534.94 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 0.91 points or 0.05% to 1,837.13.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 12.32 points or 0.35% to 3,558.82.