Local equities add gains in morning deals

Frontline equity indices enticing some more traction and added some more points on the streets, with Sensex and Nifty gaining around 100 and 30 points, respectively. Local investors cheered with a report that foreign investors have pumped in a net sum of Rs 11,096 crore into the Indian capital markets in April so far, driven by global and domestic factors. Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) were net buyers for the previous two months as well, infusing a net sum of Rs 11,182 crore in February and Rs 45,981 crore in March. Traders remain energized with a private report that financing deals for Indian infrastructure projects are surging on market expectations that the next government will come through with at least some of the spending that politicians are promising now during a heated election campaign. Traders took note of Commerce and Industry minister Suresh Prabhu’s statement that the trade deficit between India and China has seen a ‘whopping reduction’ as a result of ‘high-level engagement, strategic planning, coordination with stakeholders, market research, sustained efforts, constant monitoring, (and) handholding with exporters. Beside, a private report also stated that the global economy is likely to pull out of a brief growth slump later this year with a little help from the world’s central banks and from US and Chinese trade negotiators.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as investors cheered a strong start to the US earnings season, while Donald Trump's treasury chief indicated trade talks with China were in their end-stage. Back home, Former Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya has said the Modi government has achieved ‘major successes’ in social sector programmes like Ayushman Bharat, PM-Kisan and rural electrification. Besides, this government has made an ‘unprecedented progress’ in tackling corruption.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38874.34, up by 107.23 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 38780.08 and 38898.41. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.41%, while Small cap index was up by 0.82%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.71%, Realty up by 1.34%, Auto up by 1.05%, Industrials up by 0.83% and Basic Materials was up by 0.78%, while Telecom down by 0.60%, Oil & Gas down by 0.18% and TECK was down by 0.01% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 4.52%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 3.86%, Coal India up by 3.23%, TCS up by 2.79% and Hero MotoCorp was up by 1.96%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.75%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.86%, Sun Pharma down by 0.80%, ONGC down by 0.32% and HDFC was down by 0.24% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to deal with poverty and other challenges, Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said the expansion of the India , world’s fastest-growing major economy, needs to pick up to around 8 percent. The Governor stated  that while the past few years’ average growth of around 7.5 percent was impressive, ‘the expectation is India can be better’. He also added more structural reforms were needed in areas such as land and labor.

He is expecting that India will post real economic growth of 7.2 percent in current financial year (FY20) and is seeing below-target inflation even as rising oil prices add an upside risk. Still, he added that the inflationary impact from spikes in crude -- India’s biggest import -- can be exaggerated. He further underlined ‘if there is a temporary spike of oil prices and again it comes down, then obviously the impact gets moderated. Any sustained increase in crude prices will definitely have an impact on inflation, but we have to see how sustained it is’.

Higher oil prices over the longer term may hurt India’s growth as well as its current account deficit, factors which would drag the rupee down. The recent oil spike is occurring against a backdrop of consumption suffering from a crisis in the shadow banking sector and exports stagnating amid a global slowdown -- all of which has seen India’s growth prospects dim.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11674.50, up by 31.05 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 11648.25 and 11679.95. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.42%, Coal India up by 2.82%, TCS up by 2.70%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.98% and HCL Tech was up by 1.88%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.87%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 1.19%, Sun Pharma down by 1.10%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.91% and Bharti Infratel was down by 0.62% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 315.10 points or 1.44% to 22,185.66, Hang Seng increased 156.87 points or 0.52% to 30,066.63, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 73.89 points or 0.68% to 10,879.19, Shanghai Composite gained 35.82 points or 1.12% to 3,224.45, Jakarta Composite soared 29.32 points or 0.46% to 6,435.19 and KOSPI was up by 10.53 points or 0.47% to 2,243.98. On the other hand, Straits Times was down by 2.29 points or 0.07% to 3,329.69.