Benchmarks trade firm in early deals; Sensex above 38,700 mark

Indian equity benchmarks made an optimistic start and are trading firm in early deals on Friday, with Sensex and Nifty trading above their physiological levels of 38,700 and 11,650, respectively, amid unabated foreign fund inflow. Traders took encouragement with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) data showing that bank credit rose by 14.19 percent to Rs 96.45 lakh crore while deposits grew 10.60 percent to Rs 125.30 lakh crore in the first fortnight ended on April 12. In the year ago fortnight, deposits were at Rs 113.29 lakh crore and advances stood at Rs 84.46 lakh crore. Some support also came in with a private report stating that private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investments hit an all-time high of $7 billion in March, as high-voltage action by global investors like Canada’s Brookfield and Singapore’s GIC on street continues unabated despite the ongoing general elections.

However, upside remained capped with a report that the India’s crude oil production fell over 4 per cent in the financial year 2018-19 after aging fields of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India (OIL) missed the target. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas data showed that India produced 34.2 million tonne of crude oil in the fiscal year ended March 31, down from 35.7 million tonne in the previous year. Besides, the US placed India on its Priority Watch List, alleging lack of ‘sufficient measurable improvements’ to its intellectual property (IP) framework on long-standing and new challenges that have negatively affected American right holders over the past year.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower ahead of US’ GDP numbers and extremely low interest rate maintained by Japan. Back home, in scrip specific development, HCL Technologies gained over a percent after launching its CyberSecurity Fusion Center (CSFC) in Frisco, Texas. The opening of the CSFC represents the next phase in the company’s mission to support secure business growth by providing customers with a single point of contact for the enterprise security lifecycle, from detection to remediation.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38791.10, up by 60.24 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 38765.33 and 38897.63. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in mixed; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.10%, while Small cap index was up by 0.05%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.32%, Oil & Gas up by 1.04%, Utilities up by 0.87%, PSU up by 0.73%, IT up by 0.67%, while Auto down by 1.16%, Consumer Disc down by 0.41%, Industrials down by 0.25%, Realty down by 0.13%, Consumer Durables down by 0.04% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.26%, HCL Tech up by 1.63%, Axis Bank up by 1.61%, Power Grid up by 1.36% and NTPC up by 0.98%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 3.23%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 3.07%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.05%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.51% and Vedanta down by 1.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest data showed that bank credit rose by 14.19% to Rs 96.45 lakh crore, while deposits grew 10.60% to Rs 125.30 lakh crore in the first fortnight ended on April 12. In the year ago fortnight, deposits were at Rs 113.29 lakh crore and advances stood at Rs 84.46 lakh crore. For the fiscal ended March 2019, bank credit had risen by 13.24% and deposits grew by 10.03%. This was the second consecutive double-digits credit growth after the same had declined to 4.54% in FY17 at Rs 78.41 lakh crore, which was the lowest since 1963.

The data showed that on a year-on-year basis, non-food bank credit increased by 13.2% in February 2019 as compared with an increase of 9.8% in the year-ago period. Loans to the services sector almost doubled with a 23.7% growth in February compared to 14.2% in the same month last year. Advances to agriculture and allied activities increased by 7.5% in February as compared to an increase of 9% in February 2018.

Credit to the industry rose by 5.6% in February, up from an increase of 1% in February 2018. Credit to the infrastructure, chemical and chemical products, and all engineering sectors accelerated. However, credit growth to basic metal & metal products, textiles, and food processing decelerated/contracted. The RBI said personal loans rose 16.7% in February down from 20.4% in February 2018.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11679.40, up by 37.60 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 11661.75 and 11697.55. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 4.83%, Indian Oil Corporation up by 2.42%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.07%, BPCL up by 2.00% and JSW Steel up by 1.74%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.91%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.10%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.37%, Grasim Industries down by 0.84% and Indusind Bank down by 0.71% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 153.51 points or 0.69% to 22,154.07, Taiwan Weighted dropped 126.92 points or 1.15% to 10,912.94, Shanghai Composite declined 24.47 points or 0.78% to 3,099.36, KOSPI fell 12.57 points or 0.57% to 2,177.93 and Straits Times was down by 0.80 points or 0.02% to 3,349.48. On the other side, Jakarta Composite increased 0.34 points or 0.01% to 6,373.13 and Hang Seng was up by 33.87 points or 0.11% to 29,583.67.