Local indices trade in fine-fettle in morning session

Local equity benchmarks clocked yet another record opening on Thursday and continued their trade in fine-fettle in morning session, with Sensex trading above 38,000 mark, shrugging off subdued global cues. Realty, Bankex and PSU counters were on the priority list of the buyers and among banking stocks ICICI Bank, SBI and Axis Bank exhibited a smart performance. Traders remained optimistic with International Monetary Fund (IMF) report that the $2.6-trillion Indian economy is like an ‘elephant starting to run’ and will remain one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, aided by structural reforms. However, it needs to simplify the goods and services tax (GST) structure and take advantage of strong growth to trim debt more aggressively than planned. Sentiments remained upbeat with a private report stating that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the transfer of the surplus amount of Rs 50,000 crore for the year ended June 30, 2018, to the Government of India, which is Rs 5,000 higher than the budgeted amount of Rs 45,000 crore.

On the Global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as China hit back against the Trump administration’s latest tariffs and tensions ratcheted up between the US and Russia. Back home, Care Ratings has said that Public sector companies (PSUs) have beaten the private sector in the financial year 2017-18 by registering an employment growth of 8%, higher than the latter’s 6.3%. The PSU job growth was mainly driven by 58% employment growth in the logistics sector, 13% in the finance sector, and 8% in the banking sector.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38030.03, up by 142.47 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 37953.50 and 38054.27. There were 16 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.67%, while Small cap index was up by 0.57%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.77%, Bankex up by 1.29%, PSU up by 0.93%, Metal up by 0.70%, Healthcare up by 0.69%, while Telecom down by 1.00%, Consumer Durables down by 0.15% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 5.70%, SBI up by 2.88%, Axis Bank up by 2.37%, Infosys up by 1.64% and Sun Pharma was up by 1.62%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.34%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.34%, HDFC Bank down by 1.26%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.96% and HDFC was down by 0.75% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, indicating need to solve problems being faced by exporters shipping consignments to Iran, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ganesh Gupta has said the government needs to look into these problems, in view of the increasing threat of US economic sanctions against the Persian Gulf nation.

Besides, FIEO Director General Ajay Sahai has stated that the government has to take a call on the issue as the existing rupee account for export purposes have funds for another 3-4 months only. He added that ‘there is an uncertainty with Iran on trade front’.

The US has told India and other countries to cut oil imports from the Gulf nation to ‘zero’ by November 4 or face sanctions. Iran is India's third-largest oil supplier after Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Iran supplied 18.4 million tonnes of crude oil between April 2017 and January 2018 (first 10 months of fiscal 2017-18).  Bilateral trade between India and Iran increased to $13.8 billion in financial year 2018 from $12.9 billion in the previous fiscal. However, India's exports goods worth only $2.5 billion to that country.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11477.55, up by 27.55 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 11463.40 and 11495.20. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 5.54%, SBI up by 2.88%, Axis Bank up by 2.45%, Hindalco up by 1.81% and Infosys was up by 1.63%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.65%, Titan Company down by 1.57%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.42%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.34% and HDFC Bank was down by 1.29% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; KOSPI slipped 4.86 points or 0.21% to 2,296.59, Taiwan Weighted dropped 41.55 points or 0.38% to 11,033.70, Jakarta Composite declined 3.35 points or 0.05% to 6,091.48 and Nikkei 225 decreased 18.73 points or 0.08% to 22,625.58.

On the other side, Hang Seng gained 299.32 points or 1.04% to 28,658.46 and Shanghai Composite was up by 48.97 points or 1.75% to 2,793.04.