Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended Friday’s trade on an optimistic note, with gains of over one and half percent, on widespread gains amid fresh foreign fund inflows, fall in global crude prices and rising rupee. Nifty and Sensex ended just shy of 10,550 and 35,000 marks respectively. Domestic bourses made a good start, as 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 also 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. Buying further crept in with a report stating that monthly goods and services tax (GST) collections breached the Rs 1-lakh-crore mark for the second time since its launch in July last year for September, giving the Centre some hope that the wide revenue gap against its budget target could be narrowed in the second half of the fiscal. Positive leads from most other Asian markets on easing concerns over the US-China trade war too buoyed sentiments.

However, key indices gave up some of their initial gains in last leg of trade to come off their intraday high points, as market-men got anxious with report that leading stock exchange BSE will delist as many as nine companies from Monday as trading in their shares remained suspended for over 6 months. But, the trade remained in positive terrain, as some optimism remained among the investors with Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar’s statement said that as many as 10 million employees were added afresh to avail the benefits of Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) schemes and more than 10 million people came under the fold of the EPFO. Traders also 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.

On the global front, Asian markets ended in green on Friday, while European markets were trading in green, after Donald Trump hailed positive talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and a report said he had asked officials to draw up a draft bill as he eyes a potential trade deal between the two. Back home, stock related to gold and jewellery industry ended 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 too ended 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 ended at 34984.17, up by 552.20 points or 1.60% after trading in a range of 34649.80 and 35190.20. There were 26 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.75%, while Small cap index was up by 0.72%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 3.90%, Metal up by 3.08%, Basic Materials up by 2.54%, Consumer Disc up by 2.35% and Oil & Gas up by 2.35%, while IT down by 1.27%, TECK down by 0.90% and Healthcare down by 0.51% were the few losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 6.43%, Vedanta up by 6.11%, Tata Motors up by 5.87%, Indusind Bank up by 5.26% and Tata Motors - DVR up by 4.77%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Wipro down by 3.49%, TCS down by 1.08%, Infosys down by 0.65%, SBI down by 0.18% and Sun Pharma down by 0.03% were the top losers. (Provisional)

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 ended at 10543.05, up by 162.60 points or 1.57% after trading in a range of 10457.70 and 10606.95. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 6.40%, Vedanta up by 6.39%, BPCL up by 6.35%, Tata Motors up by 5.68% and Indusind Bank up by 5.31%.
On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 4.26%, Wipro down by 3.52%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.54%, Cipla down by 1.48% and Zee Entertainment down by 1.30% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 48.41 points or 0.68% to 7,163.07, France’s CAC surged 63.11 points or 1.23% to 5,148.89 and Germany’s DAX rose 134.18 points or 1.16% to 11,602.72. 

Asian markets ended higher on Friday after reports that US President Donald Trump has asked officials in his administration to start drafting a potential trade deal with Beijing. Investors also looked ahead to the US Labor Department's closely-watched employment report for October due later in the day, with traders expecting employment to climb by 190,000 jobs in the month after an increase of 134,000 jobs in September. The jobless rate is expected to hold at 3.7 percent. It will be the final jobs report before next Tuesday's congressional elections. Chinese shares ended higher on easing trade tensions and after President Xi Jinping promised more support for private firms. Further, Japanese shares logged their biggest single-day gain since March as easing of trade tensions helped lift shares of companies that have large exposure to China.