Jubilation continues on Dalal Street

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade jubilantly in late morning deals, tracking firm global markets as geopolitical tensions eased and the latest U.S. jobs report stoked optimism about global growth. Sentiments remained up-beat with industry body FICCI’s report that manufacturers in the country have a positive outlook for the sector in the January-March quarter on the back of higher production. The proportion of respondents reporting higher output growth during the Q4 2017-18 has increased significantly to 55 per cent from 47 per cent in Q3. Some support also came with report stating that the Centre is expected to get around Rs 8,044 crore on account of dividend from Coal India as the miner's board approved payment of interim dividend for the financial year 2017-18 at a rate of Rs 16.50 per share. The miner's total payout on account of this would be to the tune Rs 10,242 crore.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green terrain. Japanese Nikkei edged higher in early deals ahead of release of Q1 numbers for the BSI manufacturing index, plus preliminary February numbers for machine tool orders today.

Back home, stocks related to Auto space catches speed on Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers’ (SIAM) report that domestic passenger vehicle sales rose 7.77 per cent to 275,329 units in February from 255,470 units in February 2017. Domestic car sales were up 3.7 per cent to 179,122 units as against 172,737 units in February 2017. In scrip specific developments, Panacea Biotec surged on receiving EIR from USFDA for Baddi facility and Reliance Industries edged higher with RRL investing in KaiOS Technologies.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33602.82, up by 295.68 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 33468.16 and 33673.83. There were 23 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.02%, while Small cap index was up by 0.17%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.77%, TECK up by 1.56%, FMCG up by 1.28%, Telecom up by 1.02% and Metal was up by 0.71%, while PSU down by 0.71%, Healthcare down by 0.14% and Power was down by 0.03% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 2.81%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.50%, Infosys up by 2.14%, Wipro up by 1.72% and Tata Steel up by 1.50%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.31%, SBI down by 1.68%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 0.83%, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.38% and ONGC down by 0.31% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing confidence on India’s economic growth, the Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that India will become a $5 trillion economy in the next seven years and after that in next 7-10 years’ time may be a $10 trillion economy. He also said that India will be a bigger economy than China at some point of time. Currently, India’s economy is estimated at $2.5 trillion and that of China at $11.85 trillion. Besides, India regained the tag of world's fastest growing major economy, registering Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 7.2% in Q3 FY18.

Prabhu said “I am very sure, you take a medium term, India will grow at a much faster rate”. He added that his ministry has already prepared a paper on how India can become a larger economy. Elaborating further, he said that out of the total $5 trillion, the manufacturing sector would contribute $1 trillion, services sector $3 trillion and the rest would come from agricultural sector. He also highlighted about various steps being taken by the government to increase India’s exports.

However, expressing concerns over growing voices of protectionism, the Minister said that opening up of economies is necessary for global growth. He also said that they have seen after formation of The World Trade Organization (WTO) all the countries have benefited. He added that some countries benefited obviously more than others, like China is the biggest beneficiary of the WTO.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10321.45, up by 94.60 points or 0.93% after trading in a range of 10295.45 and 10342.35. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 2.96%, ITC up by 2.89%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.30%, Infosys up by 2.11% and Vedanta up by 2.01%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.22%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 2.03%, SBI down by 1.66%, Ambuja Cement down by 0.64% and Bosch down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 15.53 points or 0.84% to 1,859.45, Shanghai Composite increased 22.22 points or 0.67% to 3,329.38, KOSPI Index surged 24.59 points or 1% to 2,484.04, Jakarta Composite jumped 37.38 points or 0.58% to 6,470.70, Taiwan Weighted added 137.28 points or 1.26% to 11,002.10, Nikkei 225 soared 362.03 points or 1.69% to 21,831.23 and Hang Seng was up by 461.35 points or 1.49% to 31,457.56.