Local equities maintain positive momentum

Local equity benchmarks continued to trade higher with healthy gains in the morning trades, with Sensex and Nifty garnering gains of around one percent. Coal India, Vedanta and Bharti Airtel were the prime gainers among heavy-weights, pushing Sensex 0.80% higher. Sentiment remained largely positive as Reserve Bank of India reported that the country’s foreign exchange reserves increased by $2.599 billion in the week to March 1 to reclaim the $400 billion-mark. The forex reserves stood at $401.776 billion in the reporting week. In the previous week, the reserves had risen by $944.7 million to $399.217 billion. Local investors also cheered with Subhash Chandra Garg statement that the Centre will meet the fiscal deficit target of 3.4% for the current fiscal as stipulated in the revised estimate of the interim Budget despite a likely shortfall in indirect tax collection, as expenditure may be lower than estimated. Besides, a report stated that Finance Ministry is working out a mechanism under which CPSEs will have to part with a portion of the proceeds of non-core asset sales as dividend to the exchequer.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, as bargain-buying from last week's sharp losses was offset by a weak US jobs report and ongoing concerns about the global economy. Back home, CII released a ‘Suggested Election Manifesto’ for political parties to achieve an average growth rate of 8 per cent per annum in the next five years. The manifesto by the CII provides an economic roadmap for the upcoming government.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36964.47, up by 293.04 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 36726.39 and 36994.86. There were 29 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.24%, while Small cap index was up by 1.07%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.33%, Oil & Gas up by 2.10%, Energy up by 1.83%, Metal up by 1.71% and PSU was up by 1.69%, while there were no losers on the sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 3.20%, Vedanta up by 2.87%, SBI up by 2.22%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.19% and Hero MotoCorp was up by 1.79%. On the flip side, IndusInd Bank down by 0.51% and TCS was down by 0.41% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry minister Suresh Prabhu said that the government has set a target of attracting $100 billion in foreign direct investments (FDI) over the next two years (by 2020). He added ‘We have achieved record FDI inflows last year. We have set a target and are already working on bringing in $100 billion FDI by 2020’.  Boosted by the $16-billion Walmart-Flipkart deal last August, which is the biggest-ever foreign fund inflow into the country--2018 saw the country for the first time in two decades overtaking China with $38 billion in inbound FDI deals compared to China's $32 billion.

The Minister further mentioned that the government is conducting a sector analysis for FDI investments and is preparing suitable policies which will help in bringing foreign funds. Besides, he noted that ease of doing business, the government is focusing on ease of investments as well, and underlined the need for better and deeper integration of the domestic economy with the global economy. Moreover, he mentioned ‘If you remove the hurdles for investments, we can see investments coming in from all sources portfolio, FDI or domestic. It will lead to better growth’.

Additionally, he said exports during this fiscal year will top the past record of $323 billion in 2014 and he expects it be over $330 billion. However, he stated ‘I am not happy about it. We should have much higher exports. This will help in job creation as well’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11134.00, up by 98.60 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 11059.85 and 11139.35. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HPCL up by 4.54%, BPCL up by 3.36%, Bharti Infratel up by 3.03%, Vedanta up by 3.02% and Coal India was up by 3.00%. On the flip side, IndusInd Bank down by 0.47%, TCS down by 0.46%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.38%, Cipla down by 0.14% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was down by 0.09% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Hang Seng increased 177.52 points or 0.63% to 28,405.94, Nikkei 225 surged 76.61 points or 0.36% to 21,102.17, Shanghai Composite gained 41.55 points or 1.4% to 3,011.41 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 14.47 points or 0.14% to 10,256.22.

On the flip side, KOSPI fell 0.74 points or 0.03% to 2,136.70 and Jakarta Composite slipped 9.22 points or 0.14% to 6,373.85 and Straits Times was down by 2.53 points or 0.08% to 3,193.34.