Sensex, Nifty near day’s high; Bharti Airtel top gainer

Indian equity benchmarks extended their gains in late afternoon session to hover near their intraday high points, with Sensex and Nifty rising more than 200 and 50 points, respectively, tracking firm European markets. In line with the larger peers, the broader markets too continued the gaining rally in late noon deals, while Telecom index remained top gainer among all other sectoral indices. The street remained upbeat with the Confederation of Indian Industry’s latest report stating that industry is expecting the gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by close to 8% over the next two years, with a solid foundation of strong reforms process and fiscal prudence. Adding some optimism, Steel Secretary Aruna Sharma said that the rollout of new steel policy saved forex of Rs 5,000 crore since last year while around 24 million tonnes of crude steel capacity was added during past four years. Meanwhile, more than 1,300 fresh foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were registered with SEBI in 2017-18 on continued interest in the Indian capital markets.

The market participants paid no heed towards Former finance minister P Chidambaram’s statement that state of the economy was bad in the country due to the wrong policies of the NDA government and tyres of three (Exports, Private Investment, Private Consumption) of the four wheels on which the economy rides were punctured. Traders even overlooked a private report that India's retail inflation likely jumped further in May to a four-month high, primarily driven by a surge in energy prices, suggesting more policy tightening from the central bank is coming.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, ahead of a historic meeting between the US President and the North Korean leader. Asian markets were also trading in green. Back home, in scrip specific development, Welspun Corp was trading higher after the company has been awarded contract for supply of 72 KMT of API pipes in to the America’s market.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35674.41, up by 230.74 points or 0.65% after trading in a range of 35471.07 and 35704.84. There were 27 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.51%, while Small cap index was up by 1.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.87%, Consumer Durables up by 1.51%, Healthcare up by 1.19%, FMCG up by 0.94% and Basic Materials up by 0.80%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.28%, Sun Pharma up by 2.05%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.89%, Indusind Bank up by 1.79% and Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.71%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.59%, Tata Steel down by 0.74%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.25% and ONGC down by 0.09% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, few days after the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) showing drop in India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows during 2017, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ramesh Abhishek has said that FDI in the country witnessed a growth during 2017-18 to reach at $61.96 billion.

As per DIPP, FDI increased by about 3 per cent during 2017-18 compared to the $60 billion inflows reported in the previous fiscal. DIPP Secretary also highlighted the pace of expansion of foreign inflows during the four years of the Modi government, saying that FDIs jumped to $222.75 billion from $152 billion in the previous four-year period.

However, according to the UNCTAD report, 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.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10841.55, up by 73.90 points or 0.69% after trading in a range of 10777.60 and 10850.55. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.13%, Grasim Industries up by 2.57%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.57%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.55% and Sun Pharma up by 2.22%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 1.51%, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.44%, UPL down by 1.42%, Tata Steel down by 1.00% and ONGC down by 0.37% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 5.86 points or 0.33% to 1,784.18, KOSPI Index increased 18.57 points or 0.76% to 2,470.15, Hang Seng increased 105.49 points or 0.34% to 31,063.70 and Nikkei 225 increased 109.54 points or 0.48% to 22,804.04. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 14.36 points or 0.47% to 3,052.78 and Taiwan Weighted decreased 7.19 points or 0.06% to 11,149.23.

All European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC increased 11.96 points or 0.22% to 5,462.18, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 35.2 points or 0.46% to 7,716.27 and Germany’s DAX increased 68.9 points or 0.54% to 12,835.45.