Indian equities trade near day’s high points

Indian equity benchmarks extended their upward rally in late afternoon session to reach near their intraday high points, aided by firm opening of European markets. Optimism remained among the traders, with reports that the Reserve Bank will infuse Rs 10,000 crore into the market through open market operations (OMOs) on December 13. Some comfort also came with another report stating that markets regulator SEBI will discuss a slew of measures at its board meeting on December 12 for expanding its offer for sale framework to more companies, relax its norms for clubbing of investment limits by established foreign investors and tighten insider trading rules. Further, the street were seen taking note of Fitch Ratings’ statement that the resignation of Urjit Patel as Reserve Bank Governor highlights the risks to RBI's policy priorities and increased government influence on the central bank could undermine the efforts to address bad loan problems. But, the markets paid no heed towards report that the government has detected GST evasion worth Rs 12,000 crore in 8 months till November.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, as German investor confidence rose strongly in December, defying expectations for a modest weakening. But caution prevailed as financial analysts' assessment of the current economic situation again deteriorated sharply due to sluggish economic growth and uncertainties linked to global trade and Brexit. The results of a survey by the Centre for European Economic Research, or ZEW, showed that the ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany rose 6.6 points to reach minus 17.5 points in December. Asian markets were also trading in green, amid renewed optimism about the trade talks between the US and China. China's Commerce Ministry said Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35704.77, up by 554.76 points or 1.58% after trading in a range of 35167.47 and 35710.36. There were 31 stocks advancing on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 2.30%, while Small cap index was up by 2.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 4.10%, Auto up by 3.52%, Telecom up by 3.05%, Metal up by 2.69% and Industrials up by 2.52%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 7.44%, Bharti Airtel up by 5.21%, Yes Bank up by 5.13%, Adani Ports &Special up by 4.68% and Tata Motors up by 4.36%, while there were no losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, amid rebounding exports and higher industrial & agricultural output, Asian Development Bank (ADB) has retained Indian growth forecast at 7.3 percent for the current fiscal and 7.6 percent for the next financial year 2019-20.

However, ADB listed some of the downside risks to these projections such as tightness in credit flow due to stress in the non-banking financing sector, limited fiscal space for public capital expenditure and escalating trade tensions. But, it hopes that some of the risks to the economy could be offset by the recent decline in crude oil prices and competitive exports due to rupee depreciation since the beginning of this calendar.

Asian Development Bank further blamed factors like weak food prices, dampening rural consumption, higher oil prices and rising raw material costs for the slowdown in Q2 and noted that the fall in growth was a bit steeper than anticipated. Meanwhile, India saw a moderation in GDP growth to 7.1 per cent during July-September quarter from 8.2 per cent in April-June.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10721.00, up by 171.85 points or 1.63% after trading in a range of 10560.80 and 10724.20. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 7.31%, Bharti Airtel up by 5.24%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 5.02%, Yes Bank up by 4.89% and UPL up by 4.87%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 4.94%, HPCL down by 0.48%, Bharti Infratel down by 0.45% and Titan down by 0.44% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in green; Nikkei 225 surged 454.73 points or 2.15% to 21,602.75, Jakarta Composite soared 35.34 points or 0.58% to 6,111.93, Straits Times advanced 34.27 points or 1.12% to 3,093.55, KOSPI rose 29.60 points or 1.44% to 2,082.57, Shanghai Composite gained 8.06 points or 0.31% to 2,602.15, Hang Seng increased 415.04 points or 1.61% to 26,186.71 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 109.41 points or 1.13% to 9,816.45.

All European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 gained 23.97 points or 0.35% to 6,830.91, France’s CAC soared 33.67 points or 0.70% to 4,839.87 and Germany’s DAX was up by 52.87 points or 0.49% to 10,833.38.