Bourses reverse losses

Erasing all of their losses, key Indian equity markets turned positive in late afternoon session, on the back of buying at Capital Goods and Auto counters. Adding optimism among investors, investments in the Indian capital market through participatory notes climbed to Rs 79,247 crore in November after hitting a nine-and-a-half year low at the end of preceding month. Some comfort also came with Finance Minister and GST Council Chairman Arun Jaitley raising hopes of further pruning the peak rate (28%) and merging the 12% and 18% slabs. On the sectoral front, stocks related to tractor manufacturing industry were in limelight, with Ratings agency ICRA’s report showing that Indian tractor demand is expected to grow at 10-12 percent in the current fiscal but it will moderate to 4-5 percent in 2019-20. The industry has maintained a healthy year-on-year growth of 14.7 percent during April-October 2018, while metal stocks were shining, after the commerce ministry Suresh Prabhu is in favour of hiking import duty on aluminium with a view to support domestic manufacturers. Auto stocks also caught speed on the bourses, aided by ICRA’s another report indicating that two-wheeler sales in India is expected to grow at 8-10 per cent in 2018-19, supported by growing per capita income, improved farm sentiment following near-normal monsoon over the last three financial years, higher minimum support price (MSP) and farm loan waiver in select states.

On the global front, markets across Europe remained shut for Boxing Day holiday.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35632.95, up by 162.80 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 35010.82 and 35657.15. There were 23 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.01%, while Small cap index was down by 0.26%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.92%, Auto up by 0.73%, Industrials up by 0.64%, Basic Materials up by 0.60% and Telecom up by 0.59%, while IT down by 0.68%, Realty down by 0.60%, TECK down by 0.38% and Healthcare down by 0.32% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 1.55%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.53%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.38%, HDFC Bank up by 1.15% and Asian Paints up by 1.09%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.88%, TCS down by 1.43%, Yes Bank down by 1.40%, Indusind Bank down by 1.29% and Tata Motors down by 0.75% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a relief to exporters, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that India is preparing a specific strategy for exports to each geography as part of plans to make 2019 a year when outward shipments would start driving the country's overall economic growth.

Prabhu further highlighted that the country has been doing extremely good on the export front since the past 14 months, but the minister is not fully satisfied as yet with this. He said that exports should drive India's growth and to do that, the situation is very challenging as each country is trying to put their own borders.

Besides, Commerce and Industry Minister underlined that the Indian exports are growing at a time when the global trade is witnessing worst ever headwinds, countries are fighting at import duty front and there is increasing protectionism and slowdown in demand.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10724.65, up by 61.15 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 10534.55 and 10737.60. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 3.53%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 3.28%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.69%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.05% and UPL up by 1.91%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.09%, TCS down by 1.64%, Yes Bank down by 1.48%, Indusind Bank down by 1.17% and Tata Motors down by 0.75% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Straits Times trembled 42.01 points or 1.38% to 3,009.05, Shanghai Composite declined 6.53 points or 0.26% to 2,498.29, KOSPI fell 27.00 points or 1.31% to 2,028.01, Jakarta Composite dropped 45.76 points or 0.74% to 6,117.84 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 48.10 points or 0.5% to 9,478.99.