Bulls continue to roar on Dalal Street

Bulls continued to hold their grip on Indian stock markets in late afternoon session, with Sensex and Nifty garnering gains of over a percent. Firm opening in European markets provided support to the gaining rally. Domestic sentiments were buoyed with a private report stating that hiring activities registered 16 per cent growth this February mainly led by the IT and software industry that clocked a 38 per cent growth. The Naukri JobSpeak Index for February 2019 stood at 2,415 from 2,087 in February 2018. Some supports also came with the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL) Chairman K.V. Srinivasan’s statement that rebate of state and central taxes will improve the competitiveness of made ups products in the export markets. On the sectoral front, realty stocks were in focus, amid reports that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is scheduled to meet on March 19 to finalise guidelines to support the changed tax rate structure for underconstruction houses.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, even though the Bank of France revised its growth estimate for the first three months of the year to 0.3 percent from 0.4 percent predicted earlier. The survey data from the bank showed that manufacturing business confidence improved to 101 in February from 99 in January. The confidence indicator for the services sector was unchanged at 101 and that for construction was steady at 105. Asian markets were also trading in green, amid improved risk appetite after the US retail sales report for January showed a rebound and the EU said it is now up to MPs to decide the next steps for Brexit.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 37446.70, up by 392.60 points or 1.06% after trading in a range of 37230.85 and 37519.08. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining, while 1 remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.78%, while Small cap index was up by 1.14%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.74%, Capital Goods up by 2.27%, Telecom up by 2.01%, Industrials up by 1.73% and Bankex up by 1.46%, while IT down by 0.19% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 4.16%, Bharti Airtel up by 4.06%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.14%, ICICI Bank up by 2.82% and Sun Pharma up by 2.51%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 0.74%, Infosys down by 0.59%, ONGC down by 0.59%, NTPC down by 0.49% and Coal India down by 0.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, praising the Cabinet's approval of the scheme to provide rebate in state and central embedded taxes for the Made ups and Apparel sectors, the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL) Chairman K.V. Srinivasan has said that Rebate of state and central taxes will improve the competitiveness of made ups products in the export markets.

Chairman pointed out disadvantage being faced by the exporters of Made ups, especially home textiles from India, on the back of high import duties as compared to imports from other competing nations. He further said that this scheme will help the exporters in overcoming this disadvantage and to increase exports.

But, Srinivasan pointed out that state and central taxes are applicable on cotton yarn and fabrics also as in the case of made ups and apparels and further urged the government to cover cotton yarn and fabrics also under the scheme.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11280.60, up by 112.55 points or 1.01% after trading in a range of 11227.00 and 11305.00. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 4.21%, Indusind Bank up by 4.06%, Zee Entertainment up by 3.62%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.17% and Adani Ports & SEZ up by 2.90%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 0.85%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.75%, GAIL India down by 0.72%, Infosys down by 0.60% and Bharti Infratel down by 0.36% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted added 93.05 points or 0.91% to 10,343.33, Hang Seng increased 417.57 points or 1.46% to 28,920.87, Shanghai Composite gained 33.32 points or 1.10% to 3,060.31, Nikkei 225 surged 395.47 points or 1.87% to 21,520.56, KOSPI rose 19.08 points or 0.89% to 2,157.18 and Straits Times was up by 20.80 points or 0.65% to 3,212.22. On the other hand, Jakarta Composite was down by 12.66 points or 0.20% to 6,353.77.

European markets were trading mostly in green; CAC added 16.24 points or 0.31% to 5,282.20 and DAX was up by 37.64 points or 0.33% to 11,581.12. On the flip side, FTSE was down by 14.93 points or 0.21% to 7,115.69.