Benchmarks trade jubilantly in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made a gap-up opening and are trading jubilantly in early deals on Friday, with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 34,900 (Sensex) and 10,500 (Nifty) levels tracking firm global cues on easing trade war worries. Traders took some encouragement with finance minister Arun Jaitely’s statement that India’s target of being among the top 50 countries in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Rankings looks plausible. Some support came with private report that India’s equity market capitalisation would grow at a compound annual rate of 12% to reach $6 trillion by 2028. Traders took note of industry body, the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) statement that the country needs to focus on areas like registering property and enforcing contracts to get even better ranking in the World Bank’s ease of doing business index in the coming years.

Global cues too remained supportive with most of the Asian counters trading in green at this point of time, as China and the United States expressed optimism about resolving their bruising trade war. The US markets ended higher on Thursday as investors greeted the latest batch of earnings optimistically amid signs of easing trade tension.

Back home, stock related to gold and jewellery industry edged higher with Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu’s statement that the government is working to set up a Domestic Gold Council to promote the growth of the sector and boost exports of jewellery. He added that there are huge opportunities in the global market to push exports of gold jewellery. Airlines industry stocks flying higher despite rating agency Crisil’s report that domestic airlines are projected to post the steepest losses in a decade in the current fiscal year owing to higher aviation fuel costs and falling rupee.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34924.23, up by 492.26 points or 1.43% after trading in a range of 34649.80 and 34929.40. There were 30 stocks advancing against 1 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index surged 1.53%, while Small cap index was up by 1.47%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 2.93%, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services up by 2.42%, Oil & Gas up by 2.19%, Consumer Durables up by 2.07% and Basic Materials was up by 1.99%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 4.59%, Asian Paints up by 4.31%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.96%, Vedanta up by 3.69% and Indusind Bank up by 3.37%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 0.33% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, a day after World Bank’s (WB) ease of doing business rankings put India at 77th place among 190 countries, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the country can crack into top 50 if it improves on time taken for registering real estate, starting business and enforcement of contracts.

Jaitley pointed out areas that require improvement include time taken for registering property, starting business, insolvency and taxation, and enforcement of contract areas. He added that the government has reduced red-tape and corruption, and its reforms have ensured India jumps ranks from 142 to 77. He highlighted that improvements have already done on enforcement of contracts, taxation and insolvency laws and would be reflected in future rankings.

Besides, India improved its ranking on the WB’s ‘ease of doing business’ report for the second straight year. In its annual 'Doing Business' 2019 report, WB said India jumped 23 places to rank 77th position on the back of reforms related to insolvency, taxation and other areas. Last year, India was ranked 100th in the WB’s Doing Business report.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10526.35, up by 145.90 points or 1.41% after trading in a range of 10457.70 and 10535.60. There were 47 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 4.66%, Eicher Motors up by 4.38%, Asian Paints up by 4.20%, Yes Bank up by 4.09% and Indian Oil Corporation up by 3.91%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.33%, Coal India down by 0.25% and Grasim Industries down by 0.01% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 gained 167.50 points or 0.77% to 21,855.15, Taiwan Weighted rose 1.78 points or 0.02% to 9,846.52, Straits Times jumped 22.58 points or 0.73% to 3,083.43, Hang Seng soared 610.18 points or 2.34% to 26,026.18, KOSPI added 47.60 points or 2.3% to 2,072.06 and Shanghai Composite was up by 31.41 points or 1.19% to 2,637.65. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 5.72 points or 0.1% to 5,830.20.