Bourses continue to trade in green territory

Indian benchmark indices continued to trade in green territory in early afternoon session, on gains led by Realty, IT, TECK and Healthcare stocks, despite weakness in Asian counterparts. Sentiments on the street remained positive with RBI Governor Urjit Patel’s statement that the country’s growth is expected to accelerate next fiscal, as real GDP growth was moderated to 6.6% from 7.1% a year ago, there was a strong rebound in the second half of the year on the back of a turnaround in investment demand. Some solace also came with a top IMF official’s statement that global investors feel that the Indian elephant is ready to run after sustained economic reforms, but underlined the need for implementing these reforms and having a sound banking sector balance sheet for a steady growth path. Investors’ sentiments were also upbeat ahead key corporate earning of index heavyweights this week. In the scrip specific development, KP Energy rallied by over 7% on incorporating project specific SPV for sharing rights of 1200 MW Transmission Line Infrastructure to be constructed under Bop contracts for wind power projects at Kutch in state of Gujarat.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, following the negative lead from Wall Street on Friday as technology stocks declined. Investors kept an eye on rising US bond yields and awaited earnings results from several major companies this week. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34540.70, up by 125.12 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 34259.27 and 34578.92. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.56%, while Small cap index was up by 0.73%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.90%, IT up by 1.77%, TECK up by 1.45%, Healthcare up by 0.93% and Telecom up by 0.69%, while Metal down by 0.11%, Utilities down by 0.10% and FMCG down by 0.04% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 3.27%, TCS up by 2.75%, Yes Bank up by 2.40%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.76% and Sun Pharma up by 1.65%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 0.91%, HDFC Bank down by 0.88%, Power Grid down by 0.87%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.80% and ONGC down by 0.80% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel has expressed hope that India’s pace of economic growth will accelerate in the fiscal year 2018-19. He noted that the country’s economy turned in a resilient performance in 2017-18. He also said that on the whole, real gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to expand at 7.4% in FY19, with risks evenly balanced and added that global demand has been improving, which should encourage exports and boost fresh investments.

Patel said that with the help of a turnaround in investment demand, there was a strong rebound in the second half of the year, even though the real gross domestic product (GDP) growth was moderated to 6.6% from 7.1% a year ago. He pointed out that the growth was also supported by acceleration in manufacturing, rising sales growth, a pick-up in capacity utilisation, strong activity in the services sector and a record agricultural harvest. He added that several factors are expected to help accelerate the pace of growth in FY19 and there are now clearer signs that the revival in investment activity will be sustained.

Talking about inflation, RBI Governor said that since November 2016, headline consumer price inflation had generally remained below the medium-term target of 4%. An unusual spike in vegetables prices pushed up inflation to a recent peak of 5.2% in December, but it eased in subsequent months to reach 4.3% in March. He added that several factors were likely to influence the inflation outlook, including a possible moderation in food prices if the monsoon turned out to be normal and was supported by an effective food supply management.

Highlighting that the government is committed to fiscal prudence, Patel said aided by buoyancy in tax revenues and rationalisation of subsidies, the gross fiscal deficit (GFD) of the central government has been steadily brought down since 2013-14 to 3.5% of GDP in 2017-18 without compromising on public investment requirements and social sector spending. He said that the GFD is budgeted lower at 3.3% in 2018-19. The government has accepted a debt rule that will bring down the debt-to-GDP ratio to 40% over a period of time by 2024-25.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10614.90, up by 50.85 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 10514.95 and 10619.90. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech. up by 3.45%, Indusind Bank up by 3.18%, TCS up by 2.84%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.83% and Yes Bank up by 2.50%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 1.16%, Grasim Industries down by 1.06%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.96%, Bharti Infratel down by 0.94% and Coal India down by 0.70% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 140.86 points or 0.46% to 30,277.47, Taiwan Weighted shed 82.25 points or 0.76% to 10,697.13, Nikkei 225 was down by 74.2 points or 0.33% to 22,088.04, Jakarta Composite dropped 26.99 points or 0.43% to 6,310.70, Shanghai Composite dipped 19.87 points or 0.65% to 3,051.67, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 5.66 points or 0.3% to 1,882.09 and KOSPI Index fell 2.22 points or 0.09% to 2,474.11.