Local equities continue firm trade

Local equity benchmarks added some more gains to continue firm trade in the morning session, with Sensex and Nifty gaining over 140 and 50 points, respectively. Sentiments remain energized with the Reserve Bank report stating 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. Sentiment on the street also improved with Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs P K Das’ statement 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 BusinessReport-2019’. Traders took note of Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant’s statement that achieving double digit growth in the manufacturing sector on sustainable basis is a ‘doable challenge’ but for that the country needs to integrate with global markets. However, the traders overlooked a report stating that the government’s note ban decision shaved off economic growth by at least 2 percentage points for the October-December quarter of 2016 in which the demonetisation move was effected.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, following the positive cues overnight from Wall Street in a volatile session, while oil stocks are falling following the overnight plunge in crude oil prices. Back home, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that his government wants to ensure that 99% items attract Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate of 18% or less. The GST Council meeting is schedule on December 22 where the 28% tax slab is expected to be pruned further.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36490.90, up by 143.82 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 36418.84 and 36500.35. There were 22 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.96%, while Small cap index was up by 0.92%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.51%, Basic Materials up by 1.17%, Telecom up by 1.14%, FMCG up by 0.98% and Consumer Disc was up by 0.92%, while IT down by 1.11%, TECK down by 0.82% and Metal was down by 0.04% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 2.90%, Axis Bank up by 1.90%, SBI up by 1.66%, ITC up by 1.26% and Maruti Suzuki was up by 1.01%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.65%, Vedanta down by 1.01%, TCS down by 0.72%, Wipro down by 0.37% and Coal India was down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to ensure further improvement in India’s position in the ‘Ease of Doing Business Report-2019’, chairman designate of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs P K Das has stated that the Centre will have to put in place changes in policy and procedures in next three months. Das said it has to be ensured that all the processes are put in place in this financial year itself and deliver the desired changes.

Besides, he added that to curb smuggling and illicit trade, the customs department was working on having new technological tools like Artificial Intelligence, block chain technologies and deep diving technologies, which are used in many sectors dealing with operations and applications.

The process to assess the 'Ease of Doing Business-2019' for 2018 will start from February 2019 and go on till August-September. The result will be out in October. India has jumped 23 places to 77th rank in the global Ease of Doing Business rankings.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10962.00, up by 53.30 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 10928.20 and 10962.50. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 5.32%, Asian Paints up by 2.89%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.26%, UPL up by 2.20% and Bajaj Finserv was up by 2.15%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.74%, HCL Tech down by 1.15%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.92%, Vedanta down by 0.91% and TCS was down by 0.73% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Jakarta Composite soared 62.24 points or 1.02% to 6,144.11, Hang Seng increased 42.52 points or 0.16% to 25,856.77, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 34.85 points or 0.36% to 9,753.67, KOSPI rose 15.13 points or 0.73% to 2,077.24 and Straits Times was up by 14.48 points or 0.48% to 3,060.02.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite declined 6.47 points or 0.25% to 2,570.18 and Nikkei 225 was down by 150.78 points or 0.71% to 20,964.67.