Benchmarks continue their northward journey in afternoon deals

Local equity markets continued their northward journey in afternoon session with a massive gain of around a percent, as buying momentum in the equities persisted. The Sensex was gaining over 340 points, while the Nifty has managed to surpass 10,750-mark. Traders remained in jubilant mood with World Bank’s statement that India will retain the tag as the world’s fastest growing major emerging economy for the next three years. The bank’s June 2018 edition of the Global Economic Prospect report pegged India’s GDP growth at 7.3 percent in FY 2018-19 and 7.5 percent in FY 2019-20, reflecting robust private consumption and strengthening investment. Further, some comfort also came in with the RBI Governor Urjit Patel’s statement that there are no implications on non-performing assets (NPAs) of banks because of farm loan waivers provided by various states. Moreover, firm trend in Asian markets on positive cues from Wall Street, too supported the equity indices' northward trajectory. All sectoral indices were trading in green, with maximum gains coming in from Realty, Metal as well as Basic Materials stocks. In scrip specific development, Polyspin Exports soared by over 10% on resuming the factory functioning at Cholapuram from June 06, 2018 and normal production will commence in all the department from June 07, onwards.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, following a surge on Wall Street that saw the Dow again top the 25,000 mark. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35521.53, up by 342.65 points or 0.97% after trading in a range of 35278.38 and 35528.79. There were 28 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.14%, while Small cap index was up by 1.81%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.51%, Metal up by 2.10%, Basic Materials up by 1.96%, Industrials up by 1.36% and Bankex up by 1.33%, while there were no losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 3.03%, Tata Steel up by 2.98%, ICICI Bank up by 2.22%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.66% and Wipro up by 1.60%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 0.84%, Coal India down by 0.72% and Sun Pharma down by 0.01% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the department of public enterprises’ (DPE) revised guidelines for time-bound closure and disposal of movable and immovable assets of sick or loss making Central public sector Enterprises (CPSEs). The new norms give utmost priority to utilisation of available land parcels of CPSEs under closure for affordable housing as per the relevant guidelines of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).

The revised guidelines would reduce delays in implementation of closure plans of sick/loss making CPSEs. It will replace the old guidelines issued by DPE in September, 2016. Besides, these guidelines provide a broad framework for expeditious completion of various processes and procedures for closure of CPSEs by laying down important milestones in the closure process along with time-lines, outlining the responsibilities of the concerned Ministries/ Departments/ CPSE, etc, in the process.

The guidelines also provide for advance preparatory action to be taken by administrative ministry or department and CPSEs, preparation of closure proposal, settlement of statutory and other liabilities of the CPSE and modalities for disposal of movable and immovable assets of such CPSEs in a time bound manner.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10791.60, up by 106.95 points or 1.00% after trading in a range of 10722.60 and 10791.65. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 3.43%, Tata Steel up by 3.10%, Axis Bank up by 2.84%, ICICI Bank up by 2.17% and Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 2.14%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 0.61%, Coal India down by 0.50%, Titan Co down by 0.48%, Power Grid down by 0.45% and Indian Oil Corp. down by 0.40% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mostly in green, KOSPI Index increased 16.82 points or 0.69% to 2,470.58, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 18.7 points or 1.05% to 1,795.83, Jakarta Composite surged 23.06 points or 0.38% to 6,092.77, Taiwan Weighted was up by 49.92 points or 0.45% to 11,251.75, Nikkei 225 added 197.53 points or 0.87% to 22,823.26 and Hang Seng inched up 223.74 points or 0.72% to 31,482.84.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 2.95 points or 0.09% to 3,112.23.