Indian markets trade in fine fettle in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks made a flat-to-positive start but are trading in fine fettle in early deals as traders took some encouragement with CII’s statement that Industry is expecting the GDP to grow by close to 8 per cent over the next couple of years, as strong reforms process and fiscal prudence have laid a solid foundation for growth. Some support also came with report that foreign direct investment (FDI) in India increased to $61.96 billion in 2017-18. FDI inflows stood at $60 billion in the previous fiscal. During the four years of the BJP government, foreign inflows jumped to $222.75 billion from $152 billion in the previous four-year period. Adding to the optimism, industry body Assocham has said reducing taxes is the best solution to check the spurt in fuel prices which would also tremendously help India on the exports front.

Global cues too remained supportive with most of the Asian counters trading in green terrain at this point of time as investors focused on a mix of trade tensions and a landmark meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The US markets ended mostly higher on Friday, but their gains was kept in check amid increasing tensions between the U.S. and key trade partners as the G-7 summit kicked off.

Back home, near term market trend will be dictated by domestic macro data like IIP, CPI and WPI, movement of crude oil prices and currency and progress of monsoon. Agri input companies remained buzzing owing to forecasts that the monsoon this year will be normal. In scrip specific development, Shree Cement surged on completing acquisition in Raipur Handling and 8K Miles gained on achieving ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35579.02, up by 135.35 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 35471.07 and 35619.19. There were 21 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.42%, while Small cap index was up by 0.81%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.75%, Consumer Durables up by 1.12%, Healthcare up by 1.01%, FMCG up by 0.65% and Capital Goods up by 0.60%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.03% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.57%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.80%, SBI up by 1.71%, Sun Pharma up by 1.44% and Yes Bank up by 1.44%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.65%, Tata Steel down by 0.38%, Axis Bank down by 0.30%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.28% and ICICI Bank down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with a solid foundation of strong reforms process and fiscal prudence, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in its latest report has said that industry is expecting the gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by close to 8% over the next two years. It also said that the economy is in a sweet spot right now as the adjustment process regarding major reforms of the past few years is largely stabilised and industry is ready for a fresh phase of investment while capacity utilization builds up. It added that Rs 50,000 crore worth of investments have been recently announced.

According to a chief executive officers (CEOs) opinion poll, about 82% of them expect GDP growth to be higher than 7% for the year 2018-19, with 10% of them expecting growth to be above 7.5%. The survey said that industry is looking forward to GDP growth rate picking up to close to 8% over the next couple of years. It highlighted that fiscal prudence, able macroeconomic management, and strong reforms process have laid a sound foundation for growth.

The CII’s poll report stated that in the manufacturing sector, although input costs are rising the overall opinion was that demand is healthy. The report showed that CEOs noted good performance across sectors such as automotives, white goods, steel, cement, and capital goods. In the ICT sector, CEOs stated that the outlook is ‘good’ and that manufacturing of smartphone components is set to go up, indicating upward local value-addition.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10818.65, up by 51.00 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 10777.60 and 10819.45. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.85%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.53%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.83%, Lupin up by 1.78% and SBI up by 1.68%. On the flip side, UPL down by 0.53%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 0.49%, Axis Bank down by 0.46%, ICICI Bank down by 0.43% and Power Grid down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 9.17 points or 0.52% to 1,787.49, KOSPI Index increased 14.11 points or 0.58% to 2,465.69, Hang Seng added 97.44 points or 0.31% to 31,055.65 and Nikkei 225 was up by 148.58 points or 0.65% to 22,843.08.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted slipped 10.19 points or 0.09% to 11,146.23 and Shanghai Composite was down by 8.09 points or 0.26% to 3,059.06.