Bourses back in green in afternoon deals

Key benchmark indices erased all of their losses and entered into green terrain in afternoon session, as Healthcare, IT, TECK and Healthcare shares witnessed buying, tracking positive Asian markets. Investor sentiment turned positive with report that Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu hinted at improvement in India’s ranking in the World Bank’s ease of doing business report, to be released on Wednesday. India jumped 30 places to rank 100th among 190 nations in the last year’s World Bank’s ease of doing business index. Some optimism also spread among the investors with a report stating that India and Italy agreed to fast-track bilateral trade and investments and set up a bilateral industrial development and cooperation mechanism at a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Guiseppe Conte. On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, following a bounce on Wall Street, with attention turning to the release of key US jobs data later in the week.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33949.01, up by 57.88 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 33587.24 and 34050.12. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.34%, while Small cap index was up by 0.51%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.23%, TECK up by 1.69%, Healthcare up by 1.17%, Consumer Durables up by 0.47% and Industrials up by 0.37%, while Metal down by 2.26%, Telecom down by 0.90%, Power down by 0.82%, Basic Materials down by 0.75% and Utilities down by 0.67% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 3.02%, Infosys up by 2.98%, Sun Pharma up by 2.07%, Indusind Bank up by 1.96% and Axis Bank up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 4.01%, Coal India down by 3.43%, NTPC down by 2.16%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.01% and Power Grid down by 1.98% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to enhance the share of overall service sector in India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that the government will work on promoting the growth of the education sector. He informed that the government was working with different universities and institutions in this regard. He also indicated that presently, the services sector accounted for two-third of India’s GDP.

According to the minister, promoting growth of services sector would help dealing with the issue, as employment generation is a major challenge. He also said that the educational institutes have to keep in mind the emerging challenges being faced by industries and introduce modern technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and big data.

In February, the Union Cabinet had decided to give focused attention to 12 champion service sectors and mandated the identified nodal ministries and departments to formulate sectoral action plans under the dedicated fund of Rs 5,000 crore. The 12 champion service sectors includes IT, tourism and hospitality, transport, accounting, audio visual, legal, education and environment.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10217.75, up by 19.35 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 10105.10 and 10246.00. There were 21 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 6.88%, HCL Tech. up by 3.04%, HDFC up by 3.03%, Infosys up by 3.00% and UPL up by 2.66%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 3.99%, Coal India down by 3.35%, Hindalco down by 2.52%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.34% and Zee Entertainment down by 2.20% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; KOSPI increased 15.00 points or 0.74% to 2,029.69, Shanghai Composite rose 28.16 points or 1.08% to 2,596.21, Nikkei 225 surged 463.17 points or 2.11% to 21,920.46, Jakarta Composite was up by 10.56 points or 0.18% to 5,799.66, Taiwan Weighted added 276.02 points or 2.82% to 9,802.13, Hang Seng increased 270.85 points or 1.09% to 24,856.38 and Straits Times rose 37.03 points or 1.23% to 3,003.48.