Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made an optimistic start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Thursday, as traders opted to buy beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks after six days of continuous drubbing. Traders took some encouragement with Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar’s statement that the country’s economy, which had witnessed slow growth due to decline in private investment and other factors, is on the rise again. He added that the employment should get due attention and that job creation would contribute to GDP growth as well. Some support also came with report that the Indian government reiterated its pitch for a sovereign rating upgrade to Fitch, citing strong macro-economic fundamentals. Fitch has a BBB-, the lowest investment grade sovereign rating on India, with a stable outlook.

On the global front, Asian markets are rallying at this point of time after market participants digested reports of top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn’s resignation. The US markets ended mostly in red on Wednesday after White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders suggested Mexico and Canada could be exempt from President Donald Trump's planned tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Back home, traders book some of their initial gains as the Congress’ victory over the ruling BJP in Rajasthan local body polls and the Telugu Desam Party’s decision to pull out two of its ministers in the central government. Telecom stocks remained buzzing on report that the Union Cabinet has relaxed spectrum holding caps, giving a boost to M&As and spectrum sale, as carriers try to sell assets, including airwaves, to repay debt. The Cabinet also extended the payments tenure for auctioned airwaves from 12 years.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33133.45, up by 100.36 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 33125.76 and 33309.36. There were 17 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.24%, while Small cap index was down by 0.10%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were TECK up by 0.80%, IT up by 0.80%, Telecom up by 0.65%, FMCG up by 0.22% and Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services up by 0.07%, while PSU down by 0.73%, Metal down by 0.67%, Power down by 0.63%, Utilities down by 0.51% and Basic Materials was down by 0.47% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.09%, ICICI Bank up by 1.85%, Infosys up by 1.47%, HDFC up by 1.36% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.52%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 3.50%, Tata Motors down by 1.15%, Coal India down by 0.88%, Indusind Bank down by 0.76% and SBI down by 0.67% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, citing good third quarter gross domestic product (GDP) numbers for the fiscal year 2017-18, Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar has said that India’s economy bottomed out and is on the rise again. He also said that the country’s economy had witnessed slow growth because of decline in private investment and other factors. He added that this has all started changing and investment cycle has turned.

Niti Aayog vice chairman highlighted that self-employment has generally been seen in the country as a residual category, and the self-employed youth, in the coming days, would be highly qualified and adept at latest technologies. He believes that the self-employed youth will be using Internet of things (IoT) to deliver to the society what the society needs at a rapidly changing pace.

On the employment front, Kumar said that it should get due attention and that job creation would contribute to GDP growth as well. In order to make good policy, he said that the Niti Aayog would like to generate payroll data based on inputs from employers on their plans vis-a-vis recruitment. He pointed out that the jobs created by new employers in the country like taxi companies and financial institutions should also be taken into consideration in employment data.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10176.70, up by 22.50 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 10173.90 and 10241.40. There were 21 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.00%, ICICI Bank up by 1.99%, HDFC up by 1.46%, Infosys up by 1.36% and HCL Tech up by 0.76%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 3.62%, BPCL down by 1.97%, Hindalco down by 1.51%, Tata Motors down by 1.09% and ONGC down by 1.02% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 5.76 points or 0.31% to 1,843.66, Shanghai Composite gained 8.02 points or 0.25% to 3,279.68, KOSPI Index increased 17.93 points or 0.75% to 2,419.75, Jakarta Composite surged 62.65 points or 0.98% to 6,430.91, Nikkei 225 jumped 83.37 points or 0.39% to 21,336.09, Taiwan Weighted added 85.03 points or 0.79% to 10,830.35 and Hang Seng up by 434.21 points or 1.44% to 30,631.13.