Benchmarks extend gains in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks extended their gains in late morning session, taking cues from their key Asian counterparts. Investors shrugged off report stating that the value of private equity and venture capital investments in Indian companies during the quarter ended March 2018 declined by 49 per cent to $3.7 billion across 133 deals, compared with $7.3 billion across 200 deals during the same quarter the previous year. Traders ignored the monthly average GST collection that was a tad below Rs 90,000 crore; assuming nearly half of this around Rs 43,000 crore.

On the global front, Asian market were trading mostly in green, despite China slapping extra tariffs of up to 25 per cent on 128 US products, in response to US duties on imports of aluminium and steel. Back on domestic turf, in scrip specific development, Mahindra & Mahindra gained with its Auto Sector registering 10% growth in March sales. While, Confidence Petroleum rose on commissioning three Auto LPG Dispensing Stations, with this, the company has total 127 AUTO LPG Dispensing Stations in operation.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33129.77, up by 161.09 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 32997.88 and 33138.52. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.56%, while Small cap index was up by 1.61%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Industrials up by 1.74%, Healthcare up by 1.67%, Auto up by 1.57%, Capital Goods up by 1.57% and Basic Materials up by 1.06%, while Bankex down by 0.69%, PSU down by 0.21% and Consumer Durables down by 0.20% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.66%, Tata Motors up by 2.76%, Adani Ports up by 2.38%, Dr Reddys up by 2.30% and Tata Motors - DVR was up by 2.12%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 6.12%, Axis Bank down by 1.98%, Coal India down by 1.53%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.19% and SBI was down by 1.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has acknowledged that unemployment is one of the most serious socio-economic problems that India is facing today. However, it also exuded confidence that a number of reforms being carried out for the past few years would end up creating relatively more jobs in the country.  Noting that India has been one of the fastest growing large economies in recent times, the IMF spokesperson, Gerry Rice said that this has led to improvement in poverty reduction and improvements in standard of living.

Rice has said that their view is that recent reforms, particularly the implementation of a nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, should help boost efficiency and productivity, and overtime will help create jobs in the formal sector. In addition, he noted that the government recently took steps towards labor market flexibility by modifying labor rules. He added that these reforms will help to increase employment, perhaps not overnight but over the medium term.

The IMF spokesperson further stated that the continuation of micro economic policies, structural forms including reforms in the labor market, will not only boosts India’s long-term growth but create jobs as well. He believed that all of this will help to spur India’s continuing catch up with advanced economies and create many jobs that are needed to employ people who are going to labor force.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10168.65, up by 54.95 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 10127.75 and 10178.55. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 3.82%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.77%, Tata Motors up by 2.88%, Adani Ports up by 2.61% and Dr Reddys Lab was up by 2.47%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 6.18%, Indian Oil down by 3.09%, Axis Bank down by 2.17%, Coal India down by 1.50% and Bharti Airtel was down by 1.18% were the top losers.

Asian markets were mostly trading in green; Shanghai Composite increased by 5.06 points or 0.16% to 3,173.95, Jakarta Composite gained 37.01 points or 0.6% to 6,226.00, Nikkei 225 surged 57.16 points or 0.27% to 21,511.46 and Hang Seng was up by 70.85 points or 0.24% to 30,093.38.

On the other flip, Taiwan Weighted declined 31.22 points or 0.29% to 10,888.27, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI slipped 2.88 points or 0.15% to 1,860.58 and KOSPI Index was down by 2.47 points or 0.1% to 2,443.38.