Local equities add some more traction on streets

Local equity benchmarks enticing some more traction have added more points on the streets, with Sensex and Nifty gaining more than 360 and 90 points, respectively. Barring Telecom stocks, there was buying across all sectoral indices. Buoyant Mid-caps and Small-caps also elevated around one third percent gains on their respective front line stocks. Sentiment remained largely positive as Union Minister Suresh Prabhu stated that the industry ministry is preparing an action plan for implementing the proposed new industrial policy, aimed at promoting manufacturing and economic growth of the country. Domestic sentiment was buoyed with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s statement that the blue economy is a critical aspect of the India’s economic development agenda and the country endorses its growth in a sustainable manner. The traders overlooked a private report stating that RBI board’s decision of restructuring loans up to Rs 25 crore for the MSME sector is a ‘step backwards’.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, following the overnight rally on Wall Street after comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell were interpreted as dovish for interest rates. Investor sentiment also energized by optimism that the US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit later this week. Back home, the coal ministry has received ‘overwhelming’ response for the latest invitations for 19 captive mined, after the failure of last two tranches of coal-block auctions.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36077.88, up by 360.93 points or 1.01% after trading in a range of 35946.24 and 36081.27. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.43%, while Small cap index was up by 0.32%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.60%, Energy up by 1.44%, FMCG up by 1.20%, Healthcare up by 0.91% and Consumer Durables was up by 0.91%, while Telecom down by 0.34% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 3.06%, Reliance Industries up by 2.36%, Tata Steel up by 2.23%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.07% and Bajaj Auto was up by 2.04%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 6.52%, ONGC down by 1.51%, Coal India down by 1.43%, NTPC down by 0.91% and Maruti Suzuki was down by 0.18% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank India (RBI) in its latest report has showed that Indian companies’ foreign borrowings dropped nearly 66% to $1.41 billion in October 2018. The domestic firms had borrowed $4.09 billion from overseas markets through external commercial borrowings (ECBs) as well as Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) in October 2017. Besides, there was additional borrowings of $314.99 million through rupee denominated bonds (RDBs) in the year-ago month.

However, the borrowings through RDBs remained unchanged in October 2018. Of the total borrowing amount in October 2018, the Indian companies brought in $1.40 billion through automatic route and the rest of $8.54 million was by way of approval route.

Among the major borrowers, HPCL-Mittal Energy raised $350 million for rupee expenditure; Oppo Mobiles India $250 million for import of capital goods; Ostro Kutch Wind $88.27 million for new project; ICICI Home Finance Company $75 million for on-lending. Bharti Airtel raised $100 million each for tenors of 5 years and 6 years for refinancing of earlier ECB and rupee expenditure respectively. Taiyo Nippon Sanso India ($ 8.54 million) was the only company to have raised money from approval route.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10823.40, up by 94.55 points or 0.88% after trading in a range of 10782.35 and 10825.45. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.15%, Vedanta up by 3.01%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.79%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.42% and Tata Steel was up by 2.31%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 6.85%, ONGC down by 1.96%, Coal India down by 1.53%, HCL Tech down by 1.45% and UPL down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 gained 149.89 points or 0.67% to 22,326.91, KOSPI rose 10.13 points or 0.48% to 2,118.35, Shanghai Composite surged 7.25 points or 0.28% to 2,608.99, Taiwan Weighted soared 41.40 points or 0.42% to 9,925.71, Jakarta Composite advanced 87.93 points or 1.45% to 6,079.18, Straits Times was up by 25.27 points or 0.81% to 3,119.75.

On the other side, Hang Seng was down by 4.80 points or 0.02% to 26,677.76.