Local bourses continue to trade higher in noon deals

Key benchmark indices continued to trade higher in early afternoon session, on the back of firm trend in the global markets coupled with sustained buying by domestic institutional investors. The sentiments continued to remain firm with report that India is likely to retain the position of world’s fastest growing major economy in the January-March quarter, surpassing China’s growth of 6.8 per cent, driven by gains in manufacturing and consumer spending. The poll on the latest quarter’s annual growth was 7.3 per cent, the best pace since July-September 2016, the quarter before the government unexpectedly scrapped high-value currency notes. Some optimism also spread among the investors with SBI research report, where it expecting GDP growth for Q4FY18 to be around 7.6 percent and the FY18 growth to be at 6.7 percent. It also said that the GDP growth for Q4 and FY18 is likely to spring a positive surprise. Besides, short-covering by participants with Thursday being the last trading session of the May series of derivative contracts also supported the sentiments. However, broader indices were acting contrary to the trend, trading lower with losses of over 0.20%. In scrip specific development, Saksoft was up by over a percent on getting nod to acquire further 20% stake in Dreamorbit Softech, subsidiary of the company.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as political turmoil in Italy that had roiled global financial markets showed signs of easing. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35061.71, up by 155.60 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 34926.08 and 35152.17. There were 17 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.22%, while Small cap index was down by 0.21%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.08%, Energy up by 0.82%, IT up by 0.56%, TECK up by 0.40% and PSU up by 0.39%, while Power down by 0.46%, Healthcare down by 0.46%, Realty down by 0.32%, Auto down by 0.30% and Industrials down by 0.29% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 3.22%, HDFC Bank up by 2.35%, Coal India up by 2.30%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.68% and Infosys up by 1.28%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.70%, Sun Pharma down by 1.35%, ICICI Bank down by 1.31%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.89% and Tata Motors down by 0.87% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Moody’s Investors Service in its ‘Global Macro Outlook: 2018-19’ has trimmed India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for 2018 to 7.3 percent from 7.5 percent projected earlier. However, it kept the growth forecast for 2019 unchanged at 7.5 percent. It noted that the Indian economy is in cyclical recovery led by both investment and consumption, but rising fuel prices and tighter financial condition will weigh on the pace of acceleration.

According to the report, an acceleration in rural consumption, aided by higher minimum support prices and a normal monsoon, would help the economy grow. It also said that the private investment cycle will continue to make a gradual recovery, as twin balance-sheet issues - impaired assets at banks and corporates - slowly get addressed through deleveraging and the application of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. However, it cautioned that the ongoing transition to the new Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime could weigh on growth somewhat over the next few quarters, which poses some downside risk to the forecast. But, it expects these issues to moderate over the course of the year.

For the world economy, Moody’s expected 2018 to be a year of robust global growth, similar to 2017. However, it said that global growth will likely moderate by the end of 2018 and in 2019 as a result of a number of advanced economies reaching full employment, and because of rising borrowing costs and tighter credit conditions in both advanced and emerging market countries that will hamper further acceleration.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10661.15, up by 46.80 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 10620.40 and 10676.10. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 3.25%, Coal India up by 2.25%, HDFC Bank up by 2.21%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.15% and GAIL India up by 1.69%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.62%, Sun Pharma down by 1.31%, ICICI Bank down by 1.11%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.01% and Grasim Industries down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index surged 13.98 points or 0.58% to 2,423.01, Shanghai Composite was up by 46.34 points or 1.52% to 3,087.78, Taiwan Weighted rose 53.79 points or 0.5% to 10,874.96, Nikkei 225 added 183.3 points or 0.83% to 22,201.82 and Hang Seng inched up 264.83 points or 0.88% to 30,321.62.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 52.8 points or 0.88% to 5,958.26.