Local equities enticing some more traction in morning deals

Local equity benchmarks enticing some more traction and continued their firm trade on the streets, with Sensex and Nifty gaining more than 300 and 75 points, respectively. Traders remained positive with Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) report that the forex reserves continued its upward march and increased by $1.267 billion to $397.351 billion in the week to January 11, 2019, aided by a rise in core currency assets and value of gold. Traders also remain energized with a private report stating that India is likely to surpass the United Kingdom in the world’s largest economy rankings in 2019. The report projects real GDP growth of 1.6% for the UK, 1.7% for France and 7.6% for India in 2019. Besides, a report stated that the farm credit target is likely to be raised by about 10 per cent to a record Rs 12 lakh crore in the 2019-20 Budget to be presented on February 1. For the current fiscal, the government has set a credit target of Rs 11 lakh crore. Investors ignored a private report which stated that India looks set to miss its disinvestment target for the current fiscal 2018-19 once again, resulting in fiscal deficit to shooting over the limit.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, following the gains on Wall Street Friday amid optimism about US-China trade talks and the surge in crude oil prices to a near two-month high on Friday. Back home, Power industry stock slipped, despite a report stated that India is all set to achieve 100 per cent household electrification by the month end, with 2.44 crore families having received power connections out of the targeted 2.48 crore under the Rs 16,320 crore Saubhagya scheme.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36691.46, up by 304.85 points or 0.84% after trading in a range of 36351.77 and 36693.69. There were 21 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.10%, while Small cap index was up by 0.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 2.12%, IT up by 1.58%, TECK up by 1.43%, Healthcare up by 1.02%, Oil & Gas up by 0.83%, while Realty down by 0.43%, Utilities down by 0.25%, Power down by 0.13%, PSU down by 0.11%, Auto down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 3.10%, Infosys up by 2.53%, Sun Pharma up by 2.37%, TCS up by 1.48% and HCL Tech was up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.11%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.83%, Power Grid down by 0.65%, IndusInd Bank down by 0.41% and Maruti Suzuki was down by 0.39% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to help sustain growth in the economy, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das said that steps will be taken. He said that the RBI will make all efforts to maintain financial stability and to facilitate enabling conditions for sustainable and robust growth.  The Governor also reiterated that the RBI is committed to its mandate of containing inflation, while keeping in mind the need to promote growth.

Listing inflation as among the key challenges for the economy, he underlined that although headline inflation has moderated, inflation in food, fuel and non-food and fuel items are showing wide divergences. He highlighted ‘while food inflation has turned negative since October 2018 and fuel inflation has been highly volatile, inflation excluding food and fuel remains sticky at close to 6 per cent. Such wide divergences and large volatilities in inflation across major groups pose challenges for inflation assessment’.

Besides, earlier, the governor said the RBI will avoid a situation of excess liquidity in the economy and any infusion of liquidity will have to be need-based. He also said that additional open market operation of Rs 60,000 crore by the RBI is enough to meet the requirements of the economy and financial institutions.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10983.80, up by 76.85 points or 0.70% after trading in a range of 10885.75 and 10987.45. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 3.00%, Infosys up by 2.59%, Sun Pharma up by 2.35%, TCS up by 1.55% and Tech Mahindra was up by 1.39%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.35%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.27%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.20%, Power Grid down by 0.90% and Bharti Infratel was down by 0.56% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in green, Hang Seng increased 93.13 points or 0.34% to 27,183.94, Nikkei 225 surged 89.36 points or 0.43% to 20,755.43, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 63.60 points or 0.65% to 9,899.66, Shanghai Composite gained 17.52 points or 0.67% to 2,613.53, KOSPI rose 1.86 points or 0.09% to 2,126.14, Straits Times advanced 15.40 points or 0.48% to 3,239.74 and Jakarta Composite soared 18.34 points or 0.28% to 6,466.50.