Equity markets maintain gains; telecom stocks ring loud

Indian equity markets maintained their level of gains in the early noon session due to heavy buying in telecom, consumer durables and healthcare stocks. Support came with Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu’s statement that India’s GDP growth is likely to cross 8 percent in the next two years and the government is taking a number of steps including formulation of a new industrial policy to double the economy’s size to $5 trillion in 7-8 years. Further, investors also took some support with a report highlighting that Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) cleared over Rs 7000 crore worth Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds of exporters during the initial phase of the special refund drive undertaken by the authorities. Traders took note of a report which stated that the government is considering merging at least four state-run banks, including Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Central Bank of India. Besides, Nifty pharma continued its Friday’s gain which pulled the markets higher. Meanwhile, the market breadth was in favour of advances with 1530 shares on the gaining side against 818 shares on the losing side, while 108 shares remained unchanged.

On the global front, Asian counters were trading mostly in green. Investors showed a little reaction to the weekend’s G-7 meeting and hack of a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange. Investors kept an eye on meeting of the world’s most important central banks -- the Fed, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan, which would be taking place this week. Back home, sentiments on the street were positive with a report stating that foreign investors poured in more than Rs 2,200 crore in the Indian equity markets in the last six trading sessions on the back of easing of global crude oil prices and revival in corporate earnings. On the sectoral front, aviation stocks was in focus as Union Minister Jayant Sinha stated the number of air passengers in the country has gone up to more than 10 crore, which is higher than railway passengers travelling in AC coaches.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35597.94, up by 154.27 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 35471.07 and 35653.96. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.63%, while Small cap index up by 0.88%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.84%, Consumer Durables up by 1.59%, Healthcare up by 1.10%, Basic Materials up by 0.79% and FMCG up by 0.76%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.30%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.99%, Sun Pharma up by 1.48%, Adani Ports up by 1.32% and SBI up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.49%, ICICI Bank down by 0.31%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.26% and Tata Steel down by 0.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid rising fuel prices, the industry chamber Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has said that in order to check the spurt in fuel prices, reducing taxes is the best solution and this will also enormously help India on the exports front. It added that bring down current account deficit, will make the country’s exports competitive and the nation may also no longer see the rupee depreciating.

Suggesting further measures to the Centre, the industry chamber has said that there is need to bring in oil products under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), so that the country’s fuel prices match international rates. It also said that the prices then do not have to be administered by the government and people would treat oil as just another commodity which depends on international prices. It added that higher oil prices significantly impact not just India’s economy but household budgets as well as it leads to increase in cost of transportation and therefore impacts a lot of other products in the inflation basket.

Noting that higher crude prices adversely affect twin deficits -- fiscal and current account deficits of the economy, which will have major impact on monetary policy, consumption and investment behaviour in the economy, ASSOCHAM said that reduction in oil duties will be of big advantage to the country’s exports. Besides, the Centre had earned a whopping Rs 2.4 lakh crore while the states earned Rs 1.6 lakh crore as excise duty from the petroleum sector in FY17 and the figure is set to increase further this fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10822.60, up by 54.95 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 10777.60 and 10834.50. There were 41 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index, while one stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.17%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.28%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.05%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.97% and Grasim Industries up by 1.88%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.29%, HCL Tech down by 0.96%, UPL down by 0.89%, Tata Steel down by 0.44% and ICICI Bank down by 0.36% were the top losers.

 Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 9.66 points or 0.54% to 1,787.98, KOSPI Index increased 16.71 points or 0.68% to 2,468.29, Hang Seng increased 84.8 points or 0.27% to 31,043.01 and Nikkei 225 increased 135.08 points or 0.6% to 22,829.58.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 23.41 points or 0.76% to 3,043.73 and Taiwan Weighted decreased 7.19 points or 0.06% to 11,149.23.