Sensex, Nifty continue upward rally

The local equity benchmarks continued their upward rally in late afternoon session, with the Sensex and Nifty gaining more than 300 and 90 points, respectively, amid firm opening in European markets. Besides, the broader markets also added gains in noon deals and Metal remained top gainer among all the sectoral indices, followed by Basic Materials and Telecom. The markets continued their firm trade with taking support from the Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar’s statement that India will emerge as a model for the rest of the world, with successful completion of three transitions such as economic, political and social. The major industry gainers like Tata Steel, Sun Pharma and Bharti Airtel, were also contributing to the gains. Besides, optimism in other Asian markets, too aided the rally on the Dalal Street. Some support also came with CRISIL’s report stating that asset quality of microfinance institutions (MFI), including small finance banks, has come out of the impact of demonetisation and stabilised since June 2017.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, tracking gains on Wall Street overnight and a positive trend across Asia, after US government debt yields fell from multiyear highs reached on Wednesday, helping ease worries over inflation and higher interest rates. Back home, in scrip specific development, Adani Transmission (ATL) gained after the company received LOI from PFC Consulting (a wholly owned subsidiary of Power Finance Corporation) to construct, own, operate and maintain the transmission project in the state of Rajasthan.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34127.39, up by 307.89 points or 0.91% after trading in a range of 33832.00 and 34163.61. There were 27 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.37%, while Small cap index was up by 1.30%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.25%, Basic Materials up by 2.34%, Telecom up by 2.01%, Healthcare up by 1.64% and Bankex up by 1.20%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 7.04%, Sun Pharma up by 4.09%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.39%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 2.30% and ONGC up by 2.07%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.02%, Infosys down by 0.38%, Coal India down by 0.29% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid healthy global and domestic demand growth along with ongoing capacity rationalisations in China, the credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has revised the steel sector outlook to stable for the next financial year (FY19) from negative in the current fiscal year (FY18). It added that improvement in demand-Supply balance is expected to enhance operational and financial performance of steel industry.

The rating agency also revised outlook on rated steel entities to stable for FY19 from negative in FY18, on the back of higher cash flow generation and balance sheet deleveraging. Besides, it is expecting consolidation in the steel sector during FY19, but some of the stressed assets may take 12-18 months to ramp-up utilisation to optimum levels.

Ind-Ra is also expecting steadiness in import-export levels and added that a turnaround in stressed assets along with capacity addition could meet the incremental demand. However, the report expressed worries over the increasing global trade protectionism, as it is risk factor for export and may also put some pressure on the domestic capacity utilization.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10476.80, up by 94.10 points or 0.91% after trading in a range of 10396.65 and 10494.45. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 6.92%, Sun Pharma up by 4.16%, UPL up by 3.49%, HCL Tech. up by 2.63% and Hindalco up by 2.56%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 1.93%, Asian Paints down by 1.39%, Eicher Motors down by 0.55%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.48% and Coal India down by 0.48% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 8.23 points or 0.44% to 1,863.30, Shanghai Composite increased 20.47 points or 0.63% to 3,289.02, Jakarta Composite increased 30.08 points or 0.46% to 6,623.14, KOSPI Index increased 37.24 points or 1.54% to 2,451.52, Taiwan Weighted increased 132.17 points or 1.24% to 10,794.55, Nikkei 225 increased 156.34 points or 0.72% to 21,892.78 and Hang Seng increased 301.49 points or 0.97% to 31,267.17.

All European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC increased 2.64 points or 0.05% to 5,311.87, Germany’s DAX increased 14.13 points or 0.11% to 12,476.04 and UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 6.81 points or 0.09% to 7,245.58.