Local equities turn positive in morning deals

Local equity benchmarks erased all the early losses to turn positive in morning session, with Sensex and Nifty trading just above the neutral lines. Sentiments turn positive with SBI Research report stating that the Reserve Bank may cut key lending rate by 0.25 per cent later this week in view of benign inflation. The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das will start its three-day meet on February 7. Some support also came with a private report stating that a possible growth in direct taxes which could even exceed the budget assumptions coupled with efficient management of expenditure will help the government to implement PM-Kisan. Traders also got some solace with Union Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan’s statement the country's exports in the current fiscal year are expected to surpass the earlier peak of $314 billion in 2013-14.

On the global front, among Asian markets, Japanese stock market was trading slightly in red in holiday-thinned trade despite the positive cues overnight from Wall Street on positive sentiment generated by last Friday's US jobs data for January. Back home, a report stated that fiscal deficit exceeded to Rs 7.01 lakh crore during April-December of the current financial year (FY19) and touched 112.4% of the full-year Budget Estimate (BE) of Rs 6.24 lakh crore on the back of lower revenue collections.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36596.32, up by 13.58 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 36495.83 and 36653.17. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.05%, while Small cap index was down by 0.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.66%, Consumer Durables up by 0.60%, Consumer Disc up by 0.43%, Capital Goods up by 0.43% and Metal was up by 0.31%, while Telecom down by 2.71%, TECK down by 0.74%, Realty down by 0.61%, IT down by 0.54% and Energy was down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.93%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.60%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.31%, IndusInd Bank up by 1.31% and Hindustan Unilever was up by 1.26%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.29%, Tata Motors down by 2.14%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.78%, ICICI Bank down by 1.24% and Coal India was down by 0.97% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, indicating reforms initiated over the last couple of years, favorable oil prices and the trade war between China and US, Union Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan has said he is expecting that the country's exports in the current fiscal year (FY19) would surpass the earlier peak of $314 billion in 2013-14 (FY14). He mentioned ‘This year, we are very confident that we will go past our earlier peak, our earlier peak of 2013-14. We will go past that peak quite comfortably this year’. The achievement comes against the backdrop of a very challenging global environment. The exports, in general, have been growing almost consistently for the last three years.

He further said pharma, engineering products, petroleum products, gems and jewellery, leather products and even textiles will be among sectors that contribute to the growth in the exports. He hoped the IT exports would grow at around 10% which has been the trend for many years.

Moreover,  he underlined ‘India is doing better, because of lot of effort which has been put into it, effort on the policy side, effort on the regulatory side, in terms of ease of doing business, in terms of simplification of procedures. There are so many interventions, starting with making credit available at affordable rates’. Besides, he also said the Current Account Deficit is well under control.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10918.15, up by 5.90 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 10886.70 and 10931.00. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 2.87%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.72%, Titan Company up by 2.43%, Hindalco up by 1.93% and Mahindra & Mahindra was up by 1.86%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.28%, Tata Motors down by 2.11%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.80%, ICICI Bank down by 1.27% and Indiabulls Housing Finance was down by 1.25% were the top losers.

Several markets in Asia are closed for the Lunar New Year holiday. Nikkei 225 slipped 27.29 points or 0.13% to 20,856.48.