Indian bourses continue to trade in positive territory

Key benchmark indices continued to trade in positive territory in early afternoon session, on account of buying in frontline counters. Sentiments were positive with Suresh Prabhu’s statement that the government will soon come out with a comprehensive strategy to increase the share of global trade to 40 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), which is expected to touch $5 trillion by 2025. Moreover, buying which was witnessed in Consumer Durables, Metal, TECK and IT stocks also helped key indices to trade in green. Traders took note of the Crisil’s latest report stating that over the next three years, e-retail industry is expected to continue its strong run, growing over 2.5 times to Rs 1.8 trillion by fiscal 2020. In the currency front, rupee dropped sharply by 35 paise to 64.56 per dollar in early trade amid gains in the US currency in global markets. In scrip specific development, CMI was up by around one and half percent with its arm bagging an initial order from Engineers India (EIL) for the supply of HV Cables in different sizes and quantities.

On the global front, Asian Markets were trading in red, after a relatively quiet overnight session, due to US markets being closed for a holiday on Monday. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33828.51, up by 53.85 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 33753.50 and 33960.95. There were 17 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.01%, while Small cap index was down by 0.16%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.90%, Metal up by 0.89%, TECK up by 0.75%, IT up by 0.75% and Telecom up by 0.64%, while Realty down by 1.12%, Healthcare down by 0.36%, Utilities down by 0.20%, Auto down by 0.20% and Consumer Disc down by 0.13% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 1.43%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.30%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.23%, Tata Steel up by 1.14% and TCS up by 1.02%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.25%, ICICI Bank down by 0.78%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.70%, Sun Pharma down by 0.68% and Reliance Industries down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to provide fillip to exports and make global trade the foundation of Indian economy, the commerce minister Suresh Prabhu has said that the government will soon come out with a comprehensive strategy to increase the share of exports to 40% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and is expected to touch $5 trillion by 2025. According to the Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO), the current share of exports in GDP is only 18-19%.

Elaborating further, Prabhu said that out of the $5 trillion, as much as $3 trillion will come from the services sector, while $1 trillion each will come from the manufacturing and agriculture sectors. He added that the more than doubling of shipments will demand that the economy massively increase the share of manufacturing in the overall GDP basket, which is around 14%. He also urged the business community to come up with a proper business plan to increase exports.

In order to ensure export to new markets and ship out new products, the commerce minister said that they are in the process of preparing a new strategy for diversifying their export basket. In this regard, they are preparing a marketing strategy and the focus would be on attracting foreign investment and engaging the global community. At present, the size of India’s GDP is $2.6 trillion, which is the fifth largest in the world after the US, China, Japan, Germany and Britain, while its share in global trade is paltry and is under 2% only.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10391.30, up by 12.90 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 10358.50 and 10429.35. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 1.83%, Coal India up by 1.28%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.19%, TCS up by 1.16% and Infosys up by 1.04%. On the flip side, Aurobindo Pharma down by 1.59%, BPCL down by 1.04%, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 1.03%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.92% and ICICI Bank down by 0.73% were the top losers.

Asian Markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 224.11 points or 1.01% to 21,925.10, Jakarta Composite was down by 41.9 points or 0.63% to 6,647.38, Hang Seng dipped 38.35 points or 0.12% to 31,077.08, KOSPI Index shed 27.7 points or 1.13% to 2,415.12 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined 1.37 points or 0.07% to 1,855.95.