Bourses pare gains but continue to trade in positive territory

Key benchmark indices pared some of their initial gains in early afternoon deals but continued to trade in positive territory with gains of over half a percent, amid the early trends of the results of Karnataka assembly elections showing BJP leading gains in the Congress-ruled state. All the sectoral indices were trading in the positive territory. However, the markets pared some gains with a report stated that India’s Retail inflation, measured by the consumer price index (CPI) rose to 4.58% in April 2018 as compared to 4.28% in March 2018, while rural inflation increased to 4.67% and urban inflation surged to 4.42% in April 2018. Meanwhile, in order to meet the ever- increasing demands of India’s growing population, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has said that the country’s real Gross domestic product (GDP) must register a growth of around 10 percent annually over the next three decades.  In scrip specific development, Deep Industries was up by around two percent after receiving Letter of Award of contract from Vedanta for providing workover Rig DR06 for RJ-ON-90/1 block for primary period of 3 years.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after an uninspiring performance on Wall Street eclipsed support from US-China trade optimism, while supply concerns kept crude oil prices near three-and-half year highs. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35796.81, up by 240.10 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 35498.83 and 35993.53. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.29%, while Small cap index was up by 0.70%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.36%, Oil & Gas up by 0.99%, Bankex up by 0.99%, Capital Goods up by 0.98% and IT up by 0.94%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.10%, Power Grid up by 2.32%, ONGC up by 2.11%, Yes Bank up by 2.07% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.50%. On the flip side, Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.62%, Tata Motors down by 1.45%, ITC down by 0.58%, Sun Pharma down by 0.38% and Coal India down by 0.26% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, reversing the easing trend of last three months, India’s retail inflation inched up to 4.58% in the month of April 2018, as compared to 4.28% in March 2018 and 2.99% in April 2017. Inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) firmed up due to faster rises in prices of food and fuel products. Besides, consumer food price inflation, a metric to gauge changes in monthly kitchen costs, remained almost flat at 2.80% in the first month of current fiscal from 2.81% in the previous month, while it surged from 0.61% in April 2017.

As per the data of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme, the CPI (Rural, Urban, Combined) on Base 2012=100 for April 2018, stood at 4.67%, 4.42% and 4.58% respectively, compared to 3.02%, 3.03% and 2.99% respectively in April 2017. The index value of CPI for combined stood at 137.1. The data also showed that Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for all India Rural and Urban for April 2018 stood at 3.56% and 1.29%, respectively, compared to 0.69 % and 0.46%, respectively in April 2017. The index value of CFPI for combined stood at 135.8 for the month of April.

According to the data, inflation of food and beverages eased to 3.00% in April 2018 from 3.08% in March 2018. Within the food items, the inflation fell for vegetables to 7.29%, sugar and confectionery (-) 4.05%, milk and products 3.21% and egg 6.26%. However, the inflation jumped for fruits 9.65%, cereals and products to 2.56%, pulses and products (-) 12.35%, spices 1.25%, prepared meals, snacks, sweets etc 4.85%, oils and fats 2.11% and meat and fish 3.59% in April 2018. Besides, the inflation for housing rose to 8.50% in April 2018. The inflation for clothing and footwear was higher at 5.11%, while the CPI inflation of fuel and light eased to 5.24% in April 2018.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10870.75, up by 64.15 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 10789.80 and 10929.20. There were 34 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.06%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.61%, Power Grid up by 2.34%, HPCL up by 2.21% and ONGC up by 2.11%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.47%, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 0.88%, Lupin down by 0.78%, ITC down by 0.63% and Bharti Infratel down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 334.89 points or 1.06% to 31,206.19, Taiwan Weighted was down by 77.66 points or 0.71% to 10,874.73, Jakarta Composite shed 75.65 points or 1.27% to 5,871.51, Nikkei 225 dropped 47.84 points or 0.21% to 22,818.02 and KOSPI Index dipped 17.57 points or 0.71% to 2,458.54.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 5.36 points or 0.17% to 3,179.39 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 5.38 points or 0.29% to 1,855.80.