Firm trade persists on Dalal Street

Key barometer gauges continued their firm trade in afternoon session on the back of mostly positive trade in Asian equities coupled with sustained buying by domestic institutional investors. Domestic sentiments remained firm 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. Markets also drew some solace with the Finance Ministry 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. Traders also took a note of Railways Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the government has brought sustainable changes instead of temporary adjustments. He also said that the government took the fruits of progress to under-developed parts of the country, further highlighting that the country has become perhaps the fastest growing economy in the world from a fragile economy. The rupee's strength against dollar together with buying appeared in Telecom, Oil & Gas and PSU stocks, also fuelled the uptrend.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as investors awaited further developments in trade talks between the U.S. and China. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36976.73, up by 305.30 points or 0.83% after trading in a range of 36726.39 and 37000.37. There were 27 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index surged 1.53%, while Small cap index was up by 1.28%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 3.22%, Oil & Gas up by 2.79%, PSU up by 2.38%, Power up by 2.26% and Utilities up by 2.13%, while IT down by 0.16% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 4.10%, Coal India up by 4.07%, NTPC up by 2.86%, Power Grid up by 2.62% and Hero MotoCorp up by 2.29%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 0.62%, TCS down by 0.61%, Infosys down by 0.20% and HCL Tech. down by 0.09% were the top losers.

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.

Under the newly notified FAME-II scheme, 10 lakh registered electric two-wheelers with a maximum ex-factory price will be eligible to avail incentive of Rs 20,000 each. It will also support 5 lakh e-rickshaws having ex-factory price of up to Rs 5 lakh with an incentive of Rs 50,000 each. Moreover, FAME-II will offer an incentive of Rs 1.5 lakh each to 35,000 electric four-wheelers with an ex-factory price of up to Rs 15 lakh, and incentive of Rs 13,000 each to 20,000 strong hybrid four-wheelers with ex-factory price of up to Rs 15 lakh. It will support 7,090 e-buses with an incentive of up to Rs 50 lakh each having an ex-factory price of up to Rs 2 crore.

The scheme will have a Rs 1,500-crore outlay in 2019-20; Rs 5,000 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 3,500 crore in 2021-22. It will cover buses with electric vehicle (EV) technology; electric, plug-in hybrid and strong hybrid four wheelers; electric three-wheelers including e-rickshaws and electric two-wheelers. An inter-ministerial empowered committee, 'Project Implementation and Sanctioning Committee' (PISC), headed by the heavy industry secretary, shall be constituted for overall monitoring, sanctioning and implementation of the scheme.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11143.10, up by 107.70 points or 0.98% after trading in a range of 11059.85 and 11149.55. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HPCL up by 6.40%, BPCL up by 4.51%, Bharti Airtel up by 4.34%, Indian Oil Corp. up by 4.20% and Coal India up by 3.90%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 0.69%, TCS down by 0.60%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.39%, Infosys down by 0.25% and Zee Entertainment down by 0.23% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted strengthened 8.53 points or 0.08% to 10,250.28, Hang Seng increased 206.73 points or 0.73% to 28,435.15, Shanghai Composite gained 45.14 points or 1.52% to 3,015.00, Nikkei 225 surged 99.53 points or 0.47% to 21,125.09 and KOSPI was up by 0.66 points or 0.03% to 2,138.10.

On the flip side Straits Times trembled 3.55 points or 0.11% to 3,192.32 and Jakarta Composite was down by 6.16 points or 0.1% to 6,376.91.