Benchmarks trade jubilantly in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks has made an optimistic start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Wednesday with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 36,400 (Sensex) and 10,950 (Nifty) levels, tracking sharp fall in crude oil prices and easing macro concerns. Traders got some encouragement with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) statement that it has decided to scale up the amount of liquidity infusion by Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 50,000 crore this month after a review of the evolving liquidity conditions. The RBI also announced to conduct the purchase of government securities under Open Market Operations (OMOs) for Rs 150 billion on December 20. Some support may also come in with chairman designate of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs P K Das saying that the next three months would see the Centre put in place changes in policy and procedures to ensure India further improves its position in the Ease of Doing Business Report-2019.

Global cues too remained supportive with most of the Asian counters are trading in green at this point of time ahead of Federal Reserve policy decision with opinions split on whether or not it should hike interest rates again. The US markets ended slightly higher on Tuesday on the back of bargain hunting, with traders picking up stocks at reduced levels on the heels of the sharp drop seen over the two previous sessions.

Back home, sugar sector stocks remained buzzing with report that a delegation of domestic sugar industry held discussions with top representatives of all three sugar refineries of South Korea in Seoul with a view to increase shipment of the commodity. South Korea imports around 1.5 million tonnes of raw sugar annually and the Indian sugar industry is making efforts to export raw sugar from India during 2018-19 sugar season.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36453.14, up by 106.06 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 36418.84 and 36493.46. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.81%, while Small cap index was up by 0.75%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.64%, FMCG up by 1.25%, Telecom up by 0.99%, Basic Materials up by 0.79% and PSU was up by 0.76%, while IT down by 0.87%, TECK down by 0.70% and Metal was down by 0.03% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 2.15%, ITC up by 1.92%, SBI up by 1.73%, Axis Bank up by 1.41% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 1.20%, Infosys down by 1.18%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 0.83%, Sun Pharma down by 0.83% and TCS down by 0.75% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after reviewing the evolving liquidity conditions, the Reserve Bank of India has decided to increase the amount of liquidity infusion by Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 50,000 crore in December 2018. The central bank had earlier announced to infuse liquidity amounting to Rs 40,000 crore through the purchase of government securities under Open Market Operations (OMOs) during December. The RBI will also conduct the purchase of government securities under OMO for Rs 15,000 crore on December 20.

It further decided to inject liquidity under OMOs for Rs 50,000 crore in January 2019. The operations will be conducted through five auctions of Rs 10,000 crore each. It added that the liquidity conditions will continue to be monitored and depending on the assessment, RBI will consider similar quantum of OMO purchases until the end of March 2019.

The Central Bank said the exact calibration of the quantum of OMO would depend on sustained changes in the behaviour of currency in circulation, the magnitude of sterilisation operations for RBI's forex operations and other relevant factors. Besides, the RBI had already injected Rs 20,000 crore through two OMO purchase auctions.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10952.25, up by 43.55 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 10928.20 and 10956.05. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing up by 5.12%, Asian Paints up by 2.09%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.92%, ITC up by 1.83% and Bharti Infratel up by 1.83%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 2.42%, Infosys down by 1.15%, Vedanta down by 1.10%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.09% and HCL Tech. down by 0.89% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Straits Times rose 14.37 points or 0.47% to 3,059.91, Hang Seng increased 41.09 points or 0.16% to 25,855.34, Taiwan Weighted gained 39.92 points or 0.41% to 9,758.74, KOSPI jumped 12.47 points or 0.60% to 2,074.58 and Jakarta Composite was up by 60.03 points or 0.99% to 6,141.90.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 139.71 points or 0.66% to 20,975.74 and Shanghai Composite was down by 6.47 points or 0.25% to 2,570.18.