Bourses soar to day’s high on sustained buying activities

Extending early gains, the local equity markets reached at their intra-day high levels in afternoon session, as buying momentum in the equities persisted. Sentiments on the street improved further with a report that India has become the world’s sixth largest economy overtaking France. According to World Bank data on gross domestic product (GDP) of countries for 2017, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) stood at $2.597 trillion at the end of 2017, compared to $2.582 trillion for France. Local investors also cheered with the International Labour Organization (ILO), an arm of the United Nations, report that if 40% of India’s electricity comes from renewables by 2030 (from 7.5% in February 2018), the country could add about 3 million new jobs. Besides, optimism around corporate earnings and stronger Asian shares too brought some cheer on the street. On the sectoral front, stocks related to telecom sector edged higher despite President Ram Nath Kovind stating that the telecom sector was a critical component for achieving rapid economic progress and socio-economic development. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, as markets tried to consolidate from the previous session's steep losses when fears of an escalation in the US-China trade war jolted investor sentiment. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36659.55, up by 393.62 points or 1.09% after trading in a range of 36422.08 and 36699.53. There were 23 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.68%, while Small cap index was up by 0.67%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 3.65%, Oil & Gas up by 2.22%, Capital Goods up by 1.24%, Bankex up by 1.22% and Metal up by 1.19%, while IT down by 0.65% and TECK down by 0.61% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 4.89%, Yes Bank up by 2.91%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.92%, HDFC up by 1.86% and SBI up by 1.78%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.79%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.23%, Adani Ports &SEZ down by 0.60%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.48% and Power Grid down by 0.38% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Telecom Commission (TC), the highest decision-making body in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has approved the principle of net neutrality, which bar service providers from discriminating against Internet content and services by blocking, throttling or granting them higher speed access. However, certain emerging and critical services such as remote surgery and autonomous cars will be kept out of net neutrality norms.

Apart from this, TC has also approved the new telecom policy ‘National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP), 2018’ for seeking approval of the Union Cabinet. The policy aims to provide access to every household with download speed of 50 Mbps, attract investment of around Rs 6.5 lakh crore in the sector and create four million new job opportunities in the next few years.

In addition, it approved avoidance of double tax on virtual network operators (VNOs) who provide retail services of telecom operators. According to the proposal approved, VNOs will be required to pay levies based on their adjusted gross revenue earned from any value addition that they will be do over the top of service they will buy from telecom operators for selling it to end consumers.

Further, the commission has approved rules for running pilot projects that will be funded from Universal Services Obligation Fund. The pilot projects will be aimed at exploring alternate broadband connectivity technology other than prevalent at the moment like WiFi and mobile Internet and also look at addressing connectivity solutions for less developed districts. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11066.45, up by 118.15 points or 1.08% after trading in a range of 10999.65 and 11078.30. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 4.70%, BPCL up by 3.64%, HPCL up by 3.22%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 3.18% and Yes Bank up by 2.88%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 1.89%, Infosys down by 1.78%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.41%, UPL down by 1.38% and Adani Ports &SEZ down by 0.72% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; Nikkei 225 increased 255.75 points or 1.15% to 22,187.96, Hang Seng rose 257.25 points or 0.9% to 28,568.94, KOSPI added 4.44 points or 0.19% to 2,285.06, Shanghai Composite was up by 64.70 points or 2.28% to 2,842.47, Taiwan Weighted surged 61.54 points or 0.57% to 10,738.38, Straits Times inched up 9.70 points or 0.3% to 3,258.78 and Jakarta Composite increased 23.93 points or 0.4% to 5,917.29.