Local equities continue to hold positive trend

Local equity benchmarks continue to hold positive trend in the morning deals, with Sensex and Nifty garnering gains of around quarter a percent. Traders were seen piling positions in Realty, Energy and Oil & Gas sector, while selling was witnessed in IT, FMCG and Auto sector stocks. Traders remained optimistic with finance ministry’s statement that liquidity situation in the economy was ‘comfortable’, and it will improve further with the central bank’s move to infuse Rs 35,000 crore through the rupee-dollar swap arrangement. However, gains remain capped with Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) report that job creation fell by 6.91% in January to 11.23 lakh compared to 12.06 lakh in the same month last year.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, a day after a regional sell-off sparked by fresh worries of a coming US recession. Back home, a report stated that food inflation in the country is likely to go up to 2% in fiscal year 2019-20 from the 0.7% estimated for FY19. It noted that the low food prices have been one of the prime factors which has aided the RBI to be more accommodatory in its rate setting recently.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 37897.88, up by 88.97 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 37814.54 and 37962.75. There were 21 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.53%, while Small cap index was up by 0.48%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.24%, Energy up by 1.20%, Oil & Gas up by 1.02%, PSU up by 0.96% and Utilities was up by 0.95%, while IT down by 1.22%, TECK down by 0.98%, FMCG down by 0.21%, Auto down by 0.06% and Consumer Durables was down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 1.78%, ICICI Bank up by 1.69%, SBI up by 1.48%, Reliance Industries up by 1.46% and Coal India was up by 1.22%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.80%, TCS down by 1.25%, ITC down by 0.81%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.77% and Power Grid was down by 0.57% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in its latest ‘payroll data’ report has showed that job creation dropped by 6.91% in January 2019 to 11.23 lakh as compared to 12.06 lakh in the same month last year. As many as 2.08 crore new subscribers joined the ESIC scheme during September 2017 to January 2019.

The ESIC provides health insurance and medical services to its insured persons covering all those establishments which have 20 or more workers and all those employees whose monthly wages are up to Rs 21,000.  The ESIC data is one of payroll numbers released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in its reports based on people joining various social security schemes run by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA).

Besides, EPFO in its latest ‘Net Payroll Data’ report had showed that employment generation in the India’s formal sector touched a 17-month high of 8.96 lakh in January 2019 as compared to 3.87 lakh in the same month a year ago. The EPFO data showed that around 76.48 lakh new subscribers were added to social security schemes run by it from September 2017 to January 2019. This indicates that these many jobs were created in the formal sector over the past 17 months.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11382.85, up by 28.60 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 11363.50 and 11402.95. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 2.25%, Vedanta up by 1.93%, GAIL India up by 1.81%, ICICI Bank up by 1.67% and Reliance Industries was up by 1.57%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 2.07%, Infosys down by 1.77%, UPL down by 1.39%, TCS down by 1.07% and Wipro was down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 453.17 points or 2.16% to 21,430.28, Jakarta Composite soared 57.58 points or 0.9% to 6,468.83, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 55.75 points or 0.53% to 10,535.23, Hang Seng increased 48.10 points or 0.17% to 28,571.45, Straits Times advanced 25.08 points or 0.79% to 3,208.00 and KOSPI was up by 6.69 points or 0.31% to 2,151.55. On the other hand, Shanghai Composite was down by 30.13 points or 0.99% to 3,012.90.