Key benchmark indices continued to move in green territory in afternoon session, tracking buying by domestic institutional investors after the government said that the country's trade deficit had narrowed to a 10-month low. Some support also came with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) statement that it would inject Rs 10,000 crore into the system through purchase of government securities on January 17 to increase liquidity. The purchase will be made through open market operations (OMOs). The RBI plans to inject liquidity under OMOs for Rs 50,000 crore in January 2019. The central bank has so far injected Rs 20,000 through OMOs in January. However, gains remained capped as India’s exports grew at the slowest pace in three months at 0.34 percent in December. In the currency front, rupee dropped by 12 paise to 71.17 per dollar in early trade amid gains in the US currency in global markets.
On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, despite poor Japanese data and worries about global growth. Japan said its core machinery orders were flat in November at 863.1 billion yen, compared with October's 7.6 per cent rise. This was also lower than analysts' expectations of a 3 per cent increase. There was a sharp drop in orders from the manufacturing sector, although overseas orders climbed. The data suggests Japanese companies may be less confident in making big-ticket purchases in the face of global risks.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36395.93, up by 77.60 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 36300.82 and 36462.03. There were 16 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.
The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.21%, while Small cap index was up by 0.45%.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.06%, Oil & Gas up by 0.94%, Utilities up by 0.90%, Energy up by 0.86% and PSU up by 0.75%, while FMCG down by 0.55%, Metal down by 0.34% and Auto down by 0.09% were the few losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 1.83%, NTPC up by 1.20%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.19%, ICICI Bank up by 1.18% and SBI up by 1.01%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 1.01%, Asian Paints down by 0.86%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.73%, ITC down by 0.71% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.66% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, in order to meet the subsidy requirement for the Q4 (January-March) of 2018-19, the Fertiliser Ministry has sought an additional Rs 23,000 crore from the Finance counterpart. The fertiliser subsidy arrear touched about Rs 23,283 crore till December 2018, and some of it would be cleared with available funds and the remaining on receipt of additional funds. A balance fund of Rs 13,056 crore till December 2018, while the expenditure was about Rs 60,383.79 crore.
The government releases subsidy to the fertiliser companies on regular basis subject to the availability of budget. For FY19, the government had budgeted Rs 73,439.85 crore for payment of fertiliser subsidy. The subsidy is not being released to farmers directly, it is given on various soil nutrients to fertiliser companies in public, private and cooperative sector.
The Fertiliser Ministry is giving subsidy through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, which is different from the traditional DBT implemented for LPG. Under the fertiliser DBT system, the soil nutrient is made available to farmers/beneficiaries at a subsidised prices and 100 per cent subsidy on the fertiliser grades is released to the companies instead of the beneficiaries on the basis of actual sales made by the retailers.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10909.05, up by 22.25 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 10879.30 and 10928.15. There were 26 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.
The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 2.89%, Wipro up by 2.76%, Indusind Bank up by 2.02%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.63% and Grasim Industries up by 1.47%. On the flip side, UPL down by 2.03%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.16%, JSW Steel down by 1.15%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.08% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.91% were the top losers.
Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Hang Seng increased 24.28 points or 0.09% to 26,854.57, KOSPI rose 8.92 points or 0.43% to 2,106.10, Jakarta Composite soared 12.36 points or 0.19% to 6,421.14, Shanghai Composite gained 2.14 points or 0.08% to 2,572.48 and Straits Times advanced 9.50 points or 0.3% to 3,221.80.
On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted dropped 42.23 points or 0.43% to 9,763.81 and Nikkei 225 slipped 112.54 points or 0.55% to 20,442.75.
