Sensex, Nifty continue to trade in positive terrain

Stock markets were trading in positive terrain in early noon session amid favorable macroeconomic data and positive global sentiment. ITC, Tata Motors and Sun Pharma were contributing gains to Sensex. Sentiment remained upbeat as India’s retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) continued its southward journey for another month and eased further to 2.05% in the month of January 2019, the lowest in the last 19 months. The CPI for December 2018 has also been revised downward to 2.11% from the earlier estimate of 2.19%. Moreover, Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) deflated to (-) 2.17% in January 2019, from 4.70% in the corresponding month of 2018. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, stressing that tax concessions have been provided with a view to help poor and middle class people living on a tight budget, said now individuals earning up to Rs 9.5 lakh can escape liability by taking advantage of saving schemes.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, amid optimism that the US and China might be able to hammer out a deal to resolve their nearly year-long trade dispute. Back on streets, aviation stocks are trading mixed, at this point of time, as current competitive dynamics of the Indian aviation industry are not aligned with a profitable structure, market advisory CAPA. The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) in its outlook for Indian aviation market for the next fiscal also pointed out that a clear long-term strategy is not visible for some carriers.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36263.83, up by 110.21 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 36218.67 and 36375.80. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.18%, while Small cap index up by 0.12%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.99%, Metal up by 0.53%, FMCG up by 0.52%, Utilities up by 0.42% and Basic Materials was up by 0.39%, while Telecom down by 0.72%, Consumer Durables down by 0.55%, Auto down by 0.49%, PSU down by 0.43%, Consumer discretionary was down by 0.32% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 1.65%, Tata Motors up by 1.19%, Sun Pharma up by 1.14%, HDFC up by 1.03% and Tata Motors - DVR was up by 0.87%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.23%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.03%, SBI down by 0.89%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.70% and NTPC was down by 0.60% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after hitting a 17-month low in November, India’s industrial growth measured by Index of Industrial Production (IIP) inched up to 2.4% in the month of December 2018, but it remained subdued as compared to growth of 7.3% in December 2017 on account of contraction in the mining segment and poor show by the manufacturing sector. Besides, the industrial growth for November was revised downwards to 0.3% from the provisional estimate of 0.5% released last month. As per the data released by the Central Statistics Office of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, IIP with base 2011-12 for the month of December 2018 stood at 133.7, which was 2.4% higher as compared to the level in the month of December 2017. The cumulative growth for the period April-December 2018 over the corresponding period of the previous year stood at 4.6%.

On the sectoral front, the manufacturing sector, which constitutes 77.63% of the index, recorded a low growth of 2.7% in December as against 8.7% expansion in the year-ago month. Mining sector production contracted 1% in December as against 1.2% growth in December 2017. The growth of the power sector output remained flat at 4.4% in December 2018. The Indices of Industrial Production for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for the month of December 2018 stood at 114.4, 135.5 and 150.3 respectively. The cumulative growth in these three sectors during April-December 2018 over the corresponding period of 2017 has been 3.1%, 4.7% and 6.4%, respectively.

Besides, capital goods output grew at 5.9%, compared to 13.2% growth a year ago. Consumer durables output grew by 2.9% as against a growth of 2.1% in December 2017. Consumer non-durable goods growth was low at 5.3% in December 2018 as compared to 16.8% growth in the year-ago month.  As per Use-based classification, the growth rates in December 2018 over December 2017 were (-) 1.2% in Primary goods, (-) 1.5% in Intermediate goods and 10.1% in Infrastructure/ Construction Goods.

In terms of industries, 13 out of the 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of December 2018 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year. The industry group ‘Manufacture of tobacco products’ has shown the highest positive growth of 27.9% followed by 17.9% in ‘Manufacture of other transport equipment’ and 16.5% in ‘Manufacture of wearing apparel’. On the other hand, the industry group ‘Manufacture of furniture’ has shown the highest negative growth of (-) 18.7% followed by (-) 16.4% in ‘Other manufacturing’ and (-) 5.4% in ‘Manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10858.55, up by 27.15 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 10837.10 and 10891.65. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports &Special up by 5.52%, Indiabulls Housing up by 2.60%, UPL up by 2.06%, ITC up by 1.73% and Sun Pharma was up by 1.33%. On the flip side, HPCL down by 2.91%, BPCL down by 2.52%, Zee Entertainment down by 2.42%, Bharti Infratel down by 2.38% and Hero MotoCorp was down by 2.14% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, KOSPI rose 9.02 points or 0.41% to 2,199.49, Shanghai Composite gained 35.17 points or 1.32% to 2,707.06, Nikkei 225 surged 279.79 points or 1.34% to 21,144.00, Hang Seng increased 297.03 points or 1.05% to 28,468.36, Jakarta Composite soared 11.98 points or 0.19% to 6,438.31 and Straits Times was up by 36.11 points or 1.13% to 3,237.26. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was down by 7.16 points or 0.07% to 10,090.58.