Barometer gauges maintain gains

Indian equity markets maintained their upward momentum in the early noon session and continued to trade on positive bias, following gains in Telecom, Oil & Gas and PSU stocks. Healthy buying was observed in blue-chip stocks like Coal India, Bharti Airtel, Vedanta and NTPC. Sentiments remained up-beat after 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). 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. Further, sentiments also got boost with Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg expressing confidence that fiscal deficit target of 3.4 per cent for 2018-19 would be met as shortfall in indirect tax collection would be compensated by lower expenditure. Meanwhile, the government has notified the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India (FAME-II) scheme for faster adoption of electric mobility and development of its manufacturing ecosystem in the country. The scheme will be implemented for three years starting April 1, 2019, with a Rs 10,000-crore outlay.

On global front, Asian markets are trading mixed, after US employment data raised doubts about the strength of the global economy while investor jitters ahead of crucial Brexit votes in the UK parliament this week weighed on the pound. Back on streets, banking shares edged up despite The Reserve Bank (RBI) has imposed penalties worth Rs 71 crore on 36 public, private and foreign banks for non-compliance with various directions on time-bound implementation and strengthening of SWIFT operations. The banks include, Bank of Baroda, City Union Bank, HSBC, ICICI Bank, SBI and YES Bank. The penalties, ranging from Rs 1 crore to Rs 4 crore, were imposed by orders dated January 31, 2019, and February 25, 2019.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36973.03, up by 301.60 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 36726.39 and 37000.37. There were 28 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.47%, while Small cap index was up by 1.16%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.68%, Oil & Gas up by 2.49%, PSU up by 2.17%, Consumer Durables up by 1.97%, Metal up by 1.95% , while IT down by 0.01% was the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 3.92%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.66%, Vedanta up by 2.64%, NTPC up by 2.23% and Power Grid Corporation was up by 2.22%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 0.55%, TCS down by 0.46% and Infosys was down by 0.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) survey stated that Job creation by the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector saw a growth of 13.9% in the past four years. The survey, that covered 1,05,347 MSMEs of varying sizes, across sectors, located in about 350 industrial centres spread across the country, indicates that micro enterprises were the largest job creators in the past four years and will continue to be so in the next three years.

According to a CII survey, given that the total workforce size according to the Labour Bureau is estimated at 450 million, the overall job additions work out to 13.514.9 million per annum. It noted that the top job generating sectors were hospitality & tourism followed by textiles & apparel and metal products, during the past four years. It added that machinery parts and transport and logistics were the next significant job creators.

The report showed that in terms of states, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Telangana were the largest job creators, while in case of exporters, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana topped. It also noted that there is an expectation of higher growth on employment for the next three years. It pointed out that this optimism emanates from the fact that government initiatives like the 2 percent interest subvention given to all MSMEs and trade receivables e-discounting system (TReDS) would drive future growth leading to more employment.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11145.40, up by 110.00 points or 1.00% after trading in a range of 11059.85 and 11146.30. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HPCL up by 6.50%, Coal India up by 3.96%, BPCL up by 3.85%, Indian Oil Corporation up by 3.83% and Bharti Infratel was up by 3.37%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 0.53%, TCS down by 0.41%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.09% and Infosys was down by 0.05% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Taiwan Weighted strengthened 8.53 points or 0.08% to 10,250.28, Hang Seng increased 164.72 points or 0.58% to 28,393.14, Shanghai Composite gained 36.18 points or 1.22% to 3,006.04 and Nikkei 225 was up by 94.51 points or 0.45% to 21,120.07.

On the other hand, Straits Times trembled 1.67 points or 0.05% to 3,194.20, Jakarta Composite dropped 9.22 points or 0.14% to 6,373.85 and KOSPI was down by 0.29 points or 0.01% to 2,137.15.