Sensex, Nifty pare losses to trade at intraday high level

Indian equity benchmarks pared all of their losses to enter into green terrain and hit intraday highs in late trade on Friday, aided by firm opening in European markets. Traders took some encouragement with Reserve Bank’s report that foreign investment of Indian companies grew 18 per cent to $2.69 billion in March as compared to the year-ago period. The domestic firms made investment of $2.28 billion in their subsidiaries and wholly-owned units abroad during March 2018. Traders shrugged off report that after 108 economists and former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Chief Economist Gita Gopinath expressed doubt over India's growth rate, saying that there are still some issues with the way India calculates it.

Firm opening in European counters too aided sentiments with all the major indices are trading in green in early deals as investors await Chinese trade data due later in the day. Traders also anticipate a good set of figures following unexpectedly strong March manufacturing and inflation data. Asian markets were trading in mixed as volatile week drew to a close with investors preparing for the start of the corporate earnings season. Back home, RBI’s report stated that Banks closed fiscal 2019 with robust disbursals that rose in double-digits for the second year in row, after the sub-5 percent in FY17, which was the lowest in five decades.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38788.00, up by 180.99 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 38554.79 and 38789.75. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.26%, while Small cap index was up by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.65%, Utilities up by 0.94%, Auto up by 0.81%, Power up by 0.74% and Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services was up by 0.68%, while Capital Goods down by 0.56%, Telecom down by 0.55%, Energy down by 0.15%, Consumer Durables down by 0.13% and Industrials was down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 2.83%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.07%, Axis Bank up by 1.54%, Asian Paints up by 1.54% and Hero MotoCorp was up by 1.25%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.53%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.22%, HCL Tech down by 0.80%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.79% and Tata Motors was down by 0.73% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a bid to foster higher inclusive growth, equity, efficiency and transparency, the Ministry of Rural Development has made recommendations to the Finance Commission, which dwelled upon the changing structure of rural economy; Gram Panchayat led, data driven and accountable development approach; governance reforms for better outcomes and other specific proposals for rural development.

The Ministry made a case for additional resources for Rural India on the account of massive rise in loans to SHGs, increasing incomes through livelihood thrust -farm ponds, wells, animal sheds/resources and other specific proposals of Rural Development like maintenance of roads, transfer of certain schemes, and Human Resource Reforms.

The Ministry of Rural Development also made a case of Government’s reforms and conversant Growth Panchayat Development such as capacity building of Panchayats (along with women SHGs), use of technology, data driven financial management reforms, and geo-tagging as necessary conditions; earmarking for road maintenance and transferring DRDSs to States.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11645.40, up by 48.70 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 11578.80 and 11651.20. There were 29 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 3.43%, ITC up by 2.87%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.06%, Cipla up by 1.87% and Adani Ports SEZ was up by 1.70%. On the flip side, Indian Oil Corporation down by 1.52%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.24%, Indiabulls Housing down by 1.18%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.08% and Hindalco  was down by 0.95% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in mixed; Nikkei 225 surged 159.18 points or 0.73% to 21,870.56, Hang Seng increased 70.31 points or 0.24% to 29,909.76, KOSPI rose 9.01 points or 0.41% to 2,233.45. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 1.33 points or 0.04% to 3,188.63, Straits Times trembled 3.19 points or 0.1% to 3,327.63, Taiwan Weighted dropped 3.47 points or 0.03% to 10,805.30, Jakarta Composite dropped 13.56 points or 0.21% to 6,396.61.

All European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 31.24 points or 0.42% to 7,449.19,France’s CAC increased 5.75 points or 0.1% to 5,491.47 and Germany’s DAX increased 40.19 points or 0.34% to 11,975.39.