Local bourses hold gains in early afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks held their gains in early afternoon session, on account of buying in frontline counters. Sentiments on the street remained positive with State Bank of India’s (SBI) research report Ecowrap stating that the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) may grow in the range of 8-9% in February and March 2018, with a healthy growth in SBI Composite Index, an indicator for tracking India's manufacturing activity. Besides, sustained buying in Healthcare, Industrials and Auto stocks, also helped the key indices to trade in the positive zone. The broader markets were too broadly in line with the firm benchmark indices. However, further up move got restricted with report that the value of private equity and venture capital investments in Indian companies during the quarter ended March 2018 declined 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. In scrip specific development, RPP Infra Projects was up by around two and half percent on bagging orders from TNSCB and Maharashtra PWD.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as China imposed new tariffs on US goods after previously floating the proposal last month. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33118.70, up by 150.02 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 32997.88 and 33148.63. There were 25 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.64%, while Small cap index was up by 1.66%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.89%, Industrials up by 1.73%, Auto up by 1.56%, Capital Goods up by 1.42% and Consumer Disc up by 1.02%, while Bankex down by 0.76%, PSU down by 0.41%, Consumer Durables down by 0.15% and Oil & Gas down by 0.03% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 4.22%, Tata Motors up by 2.72%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 2.41%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 2.12% and Sun Pharma up by 2.06%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 6.32%, Axis Bank down by 2.24%, Coal India down by 1.76%, SBI down by 1.68% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.48% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, State Bank of India’s (SBI) research report Ecowrap has stated that the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) may grow in the range of 8-9% in February and March 2018, with a healthy growth in SBI Composite Index, an indicator for tracking India's manufacturing activity. As per the report, the yearly SBI Composite Index for March 2018 stands at 54.2 (moderate growth), against 55.0 (moderate growth), in February 2018. It also noted that the month-on-month index has increased to 53.4 (moderate growth) in March 2018 compared to last month's index of 50.1 (low growth).

As per the report, the infrastructure sector is a focus area of the government and a large number of projects have been announced in sectors such as road, railways, chemicals, electricity, non-conventional energy and others. It highlighted that in the road and railways sectors, projects worth Rs 12,991 billion were announced in the last three years and Rs 1,695 billion of projects were announced in the first half of fiscal year 2018. It also indicated that the government’s share in terms of project announcement has increased significantly to 71% in FY17 as compared to 46% in FY13. It added that in FY17, the share of private sector has plunged to 28% as against 50% in FY13. However, it pointed out that foreign private sector exhibited an increase share and said that foreign private sector has shown confidence in Indian economy’s growth story.

Besides, India’s industrial output surged to 7.5% in the month of January 2018, as compared to 3.5% in the same month of the previous year and 7.1% in December 2017, backed by a higher manufacturing and electricity production. The manufacturing sector, which accounts for more than three-fourths of the entire index, soared 8.7% in January as compared to 2.5% in the same month of last year and 8.5% in December 2017. Electricity production showed an improvement, increased to 7.6% in January, as compared to 5.1% a year ago and 4.4% in December.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10168.30, up by 54.60 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 10127.75 and 10178.55. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 4.25%, Cipla up by 4.08%, Lupin up by 3.91%, Tata Motors up by 2.86% and Adani Ports & SEZ up by 2.75%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 6.27%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 3.28%, Axis Bank down by 2.43%, Coal India down by 1.78% and SBI down by 1.52% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 65.72 points or 0.31% to 21,388.58, Taiwan Weighted was down by 31.22 points or 0.29% to 10,888.27, Shanghai Composite shed 3.27 points or 0.1% to 3,165.63, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 2.88 points or 0.15% to 1,860.58 and KOSPI Index dropped 1.69 points or 0.07% to 2,444.16.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite increased 37.01 points or 0.6% to 6,226.00.