Markets back in green terrain; Sensex above 36,400 bastion

Indian equity benchmarks recovered from losses and entered into green terrain in the early noon session, with Sensex trading comfortably above its 36,400 mark. Traders’ confidence got some boost with RBI data showing that banks’ credit grew by 12.78% to Rs 86,60,069 crore in the fortnight ended July 6. The data also showed that banks’ deposits rose by 8.33% to Rs 114,85,768 crore from Rs 106,01,663 crore in the previous fortnight. Investor’ sentiments also improved with Asian Development Bank (ADB) stating that India is fastest growing economy in Asia and is on track to meet fiscal year 2018 projected growth of 7.3% and further accelerating to 7.6% in 2019. On the sectoral front, Realty sector was in limelight as Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has summoned top bankers to work out a plan to revive the sagging real estate industry that provides the highest employment after agriculture amid rising chorus on jobless growth.

On the global front, most of the Asian counters were trading under pressure. Back on the home turf, the overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines; there were 750 shares on the gaining side against 1437 shares on the losing side while 107 shares remained unchanged. Besides, small and mid-cap stocks were trading in negative territory. In scrip specific development, RCom declined on reporting consolidated net loss of Rs 342 crore in Q1.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36468.98, up by 95.54 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 36310.17 and 36515.58. There were 22 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell by 0.09%, while Small cap index down by 0.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.52%, Consumer Durables up by 1.42%, Auto up by 0.65%, PSU up by 0.53%, Bankex up by 0.52%, while IT down by 0.59%, TECK down by 0.48%, Healthcare down by 0.39%, Telecom down by 0.19% and Capital Goods down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 3.58%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.23%, Tata Motors up by 2.16%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.03% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.72%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 0.96%, Coal India down by 0.59%, TCS down by 0.57%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.42% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.22% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has initiated as many as 214 anti-dumping probes up to December 2017 against China, with which India has a huge trade deficit. The trade deficit (variance amongst imports and exports) with China has increased to $63.12 billion in 2017-18 from $51 billion in the previous fiscal.  Minister of State for Commerce and Industry C R Chaudhary has said that the directorate general of trade remedies (DGTR) has initiated a total of 888 anti-dumping investigations against imports from various countries. He also said that these investigations mainly pertain to China, EU, Korea, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, US, Indonesia, Japan and Malaysia.

The minister also pointed out that out of 888 investigations initiated by India, duty has been imposed in 656 against various countries and out of which 167 were from China. He also mentioned that after China, maximum probes were started against EU and Korea (65 each). It was followed by Chinese Taipei (62), Thailand (49), the US (40), Indonesia (39), Japan (39) and Malaysia (34) as on December 31, 2017.

Countries initiate anti-dumping probe to determine if the domestic industry has been hurt by a surge in below-cost imports. As a counter-measure, they impose duties under the multilateral World Trade Organization (WTO) regime. Anti-dumping measures are taken to ensure fair trade and provide a level-playing field to the domestic manufacturers. They are not a measure to restrict imports or cause an unjustified increase in cost of products.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10988.55, up by 8.10 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 10936.95 and 11006.50. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 3.22%, Titan Co up by 2.87%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.40%, Tata Motors up by 2.04% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.75%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 4.49%, Hindalco down by 1.91%, UPL down by 1.29%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.24% and HDFC down by 1.03% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian counters were trading in red; Taiwan Weighted decreased 7.08 points or 0.07% to 10,835.38, Nikkei 225 decreased 29.51 points or 0.13% to 22,764.68, Hang Seng decreased 32.07 points or 0.11% to 28,085.35, KOSPI decreased 5.92 points or 0.26% to 2,284.19 and Shanghai Composite decreased 11.91 points or 0.43% to 2,775.35.

On the contrary, Jakarta Composite increased 12.60 points or 0.21% to 5,903.33 and Straits Times increased 31.66 points or 0.97% to 3,272.16.