Indian equities remain in green terrain

Indian equity benchmarks continued their trade in green territory in early afternoon session, on buying by funds and retail investors despite weakness in other Asian markets. The indices remained positive with taking support from the report stating that India’s direct tax collections for the last financial year crossed the Rs 10 lakh crore mark, registering an increase of 18 per cent over the previous fiscal. Some optimism also came with another report that India has moved one notch higher, to the 44th place in terms of competitiveness, in the annual rankings compiled by International Institute for Management Development (IMD) which placed the US in the top slot. However, losses in Auto, Oil & Gas, industrials and Consumer Durables stocks were keeping the gains restricted. Meanwhile, broader indices, acting contrary to the trend, were trading lower with losses in the range of 0.5%-0.25%. In scrip specific development, Ashoka Buildcon was up by over two and half percent with its arm receiving an Arbitral Award of Rs 383.80 crore, against various claims filed by the SPV.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red, as investors fretted about new setbacks in US-China trade talks, but negative sentiment was tempered by US Federal Reserve meeting minutes suggesting it would not raise the tempo at which it increases interest rates.  Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34495.73, up by 150.82 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 34367.83 and 34548.98. There were 19 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.24%, while Small cap index was down by 0.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.00%, TECK up by 1.79%, Telecom up by 1.03%, Healthcare up by 0.92% and Metal up by 0.59%, while Auto down by 1.21%, Oil & Gas down by 0.90%, Industrials down by 0.56%, Consumer Durables down by 0.56% and Realty down by 0.48% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 3.11%, Infosys up by 2.51%, TCS up by 2.34%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.24% and Tata Steel up by 2.10%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 6.56%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 3.95%, ONGC down by 3.59%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.14% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.79% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India has been ranked 44th in the year 2018, up one notch from last year, in terms of competitiveness in the annual rankings compiled by International Institute for Management Development (IMD) which saw the United States (US) topping the list. The US improved three positions to return to the top spot, driven by its strength in economic performance, government efficiency, capital provision and digital infrastructure.

Regarding India, the report stated that some of the challenges which India has to face for the year 2018 would be skilling of manpower and employment generation, streamlining the implementation of goods and services tax and balancing high growth with sustainable development goals. It also noted that digital literacy and adequate bandwidth at rural areas and mobilisation of resources for infrastructure development needs are few more key areas where the government needs to concentrate.

Hong Kong and Singapore were ranked second and third respectively. Besides, the Netherlands and Switzerland were the other two nations in the top five slots. Others in the top 10 list include Denmark (6th), the UAE (7th), Norway (8th) and Sweden (9th) and Canada (10th). Meanwhile, China (13th) continued with its steady rise in rankings over the past five years, climbing 10 spots since 2014, fuelled by a strong economic performance of its domestic market and workforce employment.

Arturo Bris, Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center has pointed out that countries at the top of the rankings share an above average performance across all competitiveness factors, but their competitiveness mix varies. He also said that one economy, for example, may build its competitiveness strategy around a particular aspect such as its tangible and intangible infrastructure; another may approach competitiveness through their governmental efficiency.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10467.85, up by 37.50 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 10419.80 and 10478.60. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 3.12%, Infosys up by 2.71%, TCS up by 2.43%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.13% and Tata Steel up by 2.10%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 6.50%, ONGC down by 3.62%, Grasim Industries down by 3.01%, HPCL down by 1.72% and BPCL down by 1.42% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 252.73 points or 1.11% to 22,437.01, Hang Seng was down by 52.38 points or 0.17% to 30,613.26, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI shed 21.75 points or 1.21% to 1,782.50, Shanghai Composite dipped 13.73 points or 0.43% to 3,155.23 and KOSPI Index dropped 5.9 points or 0.24% to 2,466.01.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted increased 50.75 points or 0.47% to 10,936.93 and Jakarta Composite was up by 138.13 points or 2.38% to 5,930.13.