Benchmarks extend gains in morning session

Key equity benchmarks extended their gains in morning session, with Sensex and Nifty gaining around 190 and 50 points, respectively. The markets took support with a private report stating that China and Russia have backed India’s move to revive talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to strengthen global norms to protect traditional knowledge from bio piracy and reckless patenting by corporates. The markets also took support from coal minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the higher demand for electricity and lower generation of hydel power have led to reduced coal stocks at power plants, but the government would ensure that there is no loss in power generation due to coal shortage. Investors took encouragement from a report that the Reserve Bank of India is expected to raise $ 30-35 billion through NRI bonds to support the rupee and offset the slowdown in FPI flows amid rising oil prices. Traders shrugged off 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 of the four wheels on which the economy rides were punctured.

On the global front, Asian market were trading mostly in green, as an historic US-North Korea summit got underway in Singapore, raising some hopes it could pave the way to ending a nuclear stand-off on the Korean peninsula. Back home, in the sectoral front, banking stocks remained in limelight after a report highlighted that the recent amendments in the bankruptcy resolution framework will help reduce timelines, enhance transparency and improve realisations. The amendments will help safeguard the interest of lenders by maintaining the residual value of assets and also spur the pace of resolutions under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). In scrip specific development, Kridhan Infra gained with associate company bagging order worth Rs 180 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35673.07, up by 189.60 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 35479.07 and 35677.00. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.45%, while Small cap index was up by 0.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.45%, Capital Goods up by 0.76%, IT up by 0.71%, Industrials up by 0.59% and TECK was up by 0.59%, while Metal down by 0.41%, Utilities down by 0.24%, Power down by 0.11%, Basic Materials down by 0.02% and Realty was down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 2.87%, Sun Pharma up by 1.40%, Wipro up by 1.36%, TCS up by 1.11% and Larsen & Toubro was up by 0.99%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.86%, Power Grid down by 0.82%, Coal India down by 0.42%, NTPC down by 0.31% and Bharti Airtel was down by 0.10% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with continuing interest in the Indian equities and bonds, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have increased in last financial year, as per the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) data. In the last financial year (FY18), more than 1,300 fresh foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were registered with Sebi.

As per regulator's Data, the number of FPIs with the markets regulator climbed to 9,136 at the end of March this year from 7,807 a year ago, resulting in an addition of 1,329. Moreover, the end of the earlier FII (foreign institutional investors) and sub-accounts regime, which ended in September 2016, necessitated all such entries to register as FPI.

In a big revamp, in 2014, Sebi has released norms that clubbed different categories of foreign investors into a new class called FPIs. They have been divided into three categories as per their risk profile and KYC (know your customer) requirements while other registration procedures have been made simpler. They are granted permanent registration as against the earlier practice of approval granted for one or five years to overseas entities seeking to invest in the Indian markets. The registration remains permanent unless suspended or cancelled by Sebi or surrendered by an FPI.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10838.00, up by 51.05 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 10789.40 and 10842.00. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Lupin up by 3.11%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 2.82%, Cipla up by 1.38%, Sun Pharma up by 1.27% and Wipro was up by 1.27%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.84%, Power Grid down by 0.66%, Hindalco down by 0.61%, Coal India down by 0.59% and Tech Mahindra was down by 0.42% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index surged 2.99 points or 0.12% to 2,473.14, Shanghai Composite gained 14.03 points or 0.46% to 3,066.82, Hang Seng advanced 88.3 points or 0.28% to 31,152.00 and Nikkei 225 was up by 139.54 points or 0.61% to 22,943.58.
On the other side, Taiwan Weighted slipped 31.83 points or 0.29% to 11,117.40 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 6.66 points or 0.38% to 1,769.14.