Domestic indices hover near intra-day high points

Bulls were dominating the local indices in the early noon session with Sensex and Nifty hovering near intra-day high points. Some support came in with a report that the Reserve Bank has retained growth projections for the current fiscal at 7.4 per cent on hopes of further boost to investments and higher consumption. The Indian economy had grown at 6.7 percent last fiscal. Adding to the optimism, the finance ministry said that it feels that most impact of the repo rate hike by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has already been discounted by banks and also sees the changes in non-performing assets (NPA) norms for Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as a huge positive. The RBI gave MSMEs a temporary breather, allowing them to delay their loan repayments by 180 days without being classified as non-performing. Meanwhile, traders were seen piling up positions in Realty, Basic Materials and Metal stocks, while there was no selling witnessed.

On the global front, Asian stocks were trading mostly in green with Japan leading gains in the region. Back on the domestic front, sugar sector was in limelight with report stating that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) cleared a Rs 7,000 crore bailout package for the cash-starved sugar industry, which includes the creation of a 3-million-tonne sugar stockpile and subsidised loans for the enhancement of the country’s ethanol production capacity.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35502.16, up by 323.28 points or 0.92% after trading in a range of 35278.38 and 35526.58. There were 28 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index surge by 1.05%, while Small cap index up by 1.79%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.28%, Basic Materials up by 1.88%, Metal up by 1.80%, Industrials up by 1.42% and Bankex up by 1.18%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 2.86%, Tata Steel up by 2.25%, ICICI Bank up by 2.18%, Wipro up by 1.77% and Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.66%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.04%, Coal India down by 0.72% and Sun Pharma down by 0.20% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in its World Investment Report 2018, has said that India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows dropped to $40 billion in 2017 as compared to $44 billion in 2016. It also indicated that in South Asia, FDI inflows contracted by 4 percent to $52 billion, due to a fall in inflows to India.

According to the report, cross-border M&A sales, however, increased to $23 billion from $8 billion, driven by a few large deals in extractive and technology related industries. It noted that outflows from India, the main source of FDI in South Asia, more than doubled to $11 billion.

The report further highlighted that globally, FDI activity has decreased by 23 percent to $1.43 trillion in 2017, as compared to $1.87 trillion in the previous year. It pointed out that the decline is in stark contrast to other macroeconomic variables, such as GDP and trade, which saw substantial improvement in 2017.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10782.85, up by 98.20 points or 0.92% after trading in a range of 10722.60 and 10786.65. There were 42 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 2.78%, Vedanta up by 2.62%, Tata Steel up by 2.29%, ICICI Bank up by 2.20% and Grasim Industries up by 2.15%.

On the flip side, Indian Oil Corporation down by 1.14%, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.72%, Coal India down by 0.65%, Sun Pharma down by 0.56% and Lupin down by 0.53% were the top losers.

Most of Asian counters were trading in green; KOSPI Index increased 17.51 points or 0.71% to 2,471.27, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI surged 18.7 points or 1.05% to 1,795.83, Jakarta Composite strengthened 23.06 points or 0.38% to 6,092.77, Taiwan Weighted soared 49.92 points or 0.45% to 11,251.75, Hang Seng advanced 175.15 points or 0.56% to 31,434.25 and Nikkei 225 was up 197.53 points or 0.87% to 22,823.26.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down 3.55 points or 0.11% to 3,111.63.