Benchmarks trade with traction in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made a gap-up opening and are trading with traction in early deals on F&O series expiry session with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 35,900 (Sensex) and 10,750 (Nifty) levels. Sentiments remained upbeat with a private report stating that with global crude oil prices slumping to below $50 a barrel just months after crossing $86, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is now confident that the current account deficit (CAD) for 2018-19 (FY19) can be contained at about 2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Earlier, the government had estimated the CAD would be 2.8 per cent of GDP. Traders also took some encouragement with a Reserve Bank of India study showing that private sector non-finance firms reported a 41 per cent growth in net profits during the July-September quarter, despite higher expenditure as other income contributed to growth. The central bank attributed this to the strong growth in manufacturing sector profits, which received support from other income.

Global cues too remained supportive with all the Asian markets are trading in green at this point of time following an overnight surge on Wall Street as markets, battered by a recent drum roll of deepening political and economic gloom, cheered upbeat US data and the Trump administration’s effort to shore up investor confidence. The US markets ended significantly higher on Wednesday with traders picking up stocks at reduced levels on the heels of recent weakness.

Back home, airline industry stocks edged lower amid a report that Aviation watchdog DGCA has proposed duty time limits and rest hours for air traffic services personnel, wherein an individual can be on duty for up to 12 hours in a day. This is the first time that the regulator has mooted duty time limits for Air Traffic Services (ATS) personnel and it also comes at a time when air traffic has been growing exponentially. In scrip specific developments, RIL gained on the buzz of telecom arm working with partners to launch large screen smartphones and Sun Pharma surged with its arm getting preliminary injunctive relief Prohibiting Biofrontera.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35915.78, up by 265.84 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 35895.37 and 36041.24. There were 26 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.42%, while Small cap index was up by 0.75%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 1.44%, IT up by 1.41%, TECK up by 1.18%, FMCG up by 0.74% and Metal was up by 0.66%, while Telecom down by 0.31%, Power down by 0.02% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 2.14%, TCS up by 1.94%, Yes Bank up by 1.78%, Infosys up by 1.57% and Indusind Bank up by 1.53%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.01%, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.74%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.56%, Asian Paints down by 0.17% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.06% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a positive note, the government has said that public sector banks (PSBs) reported recovery of Rs 60,713 crore against non-performing assets (NPAs) in the April-September period (H1) of current fiscal year (FY19). It added that this is double of the amount recovered in the corresponding period last year and more significant returns on high-value accounts are expected.

The finance ministry said following amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directed banks to initiate insolvency proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal in 41 cases, 12 of which had cumulative outstanding of Rs 1,97,769 crore as on March 31, 2017. The remaining 29 had an outstanding of Rs 1,35,846 crore as on June 30, 2017.

According to the RBI data on global operations (with provisional data for September 2018), during the last three and a half financial years, NPAs of scheduled commercial banks reduced by Rs 2,83,770 crore due to recoveries. The government said measures such an asset quality review (AQR) initiated in 2015 for clean and fully provisioned balance sheets revealed a high incidence of NPAs that were piling up since 2008.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10785.10, up by 55.25 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 10784.85 and 10824.80. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were TCS up by 1.97%, Reliance Industries up by 1.83%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.72%, Infosys up by 1.58% and Yes Bank up by 1.45%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 1.56%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.98%, HPCL down by 0.82%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 0.74% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.69% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets are trading in green; Nikkei 225 zoomed 799.53 points or 4.14% to 20,126.59, Straits Times surged 58.74 points or 1.95% to 3,069.89, Hang Seng jumped 160.13 points or 0.62% to 25,811.51, Taiwan Weighted soared 177.56 points or 1.87% to 9,656.55, KOSPI rose 4.22 points or 0.21% to 2,032.23, Jakarta Composite increased 41.60 points or 0.68% to 6,169.45 and Shanghai Composite was up by 14.06 points or 0.56% to 2,512.35.