Bourses bounce back on Thursday; Sensex reclaims 37,300 mark

Equity benchmarks bounced back on Thursday, with Sensex and Nifty reclaiming their crucial psychological levels of 37,300 and 11,250, respectively. After a cautious start, key indices remained choppy for the most part of the day, as India’s merchandise exports fell to a four-month low of 0.64% in April, 2019 as compared to same period of last year, as shipments of engineering goods, gems and jewellery, leather and other products declined, widening the trade deficit to a five-month high. The trade deficit, a gap between exports and imports, expanded to $15.33 billion in April 2019 as compared to $13.72 billion in April 2018. Adding some anxiety among traders, NSE imposed fines on 250 companies and the penalty was in the range of Rs 1,000 to Rs 4.5 lakh for non-compliance with various listing regulations for the quarter ended March 31, 2019.

However, last leg buying helped the markets to settle the session near day’s high points. Market participants got comfort, as the Reserve Bank of India released a vision document for ensuring a safe, secure, convenient, quick and affordable e-payment system as it expects the number of digital transactions to increase more than four times to 8,707 crore in December 2021. Investors were seen taking a note of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (PHDCCI) statement that a decisive government at the Centre would be crucial to push India's growth trajectory to the next level and further improve the ease of doing business scenario. Some support also came with reports that trade body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) would focus on enhancing industry’s competency and employment generation under its seven point charter for the southern region this year.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as the euro area trade surplus declined in March on higher imports. The figures from Eurostat showed that the trade surplus fell to a seasonally adjusted EUR 17.9 billion from EUR 20.6 billion in February. The surplus was also below the forecast of EUR 19.4 billion. Exports grew only 0.9 percent in March, while imports logged a bigger growth of 2.5 percent. Asian markets ended mixed, with US-China trade tensions likely to be in focus after US President Donald Trump declared a national emergency over threats against American technology.

Back home, airlines stocks ended mixed, after preliminary financial performance figures released by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) showed that aggregated net earnings of Asia Pacific airlines halved in 2018 to 4.7 billion dollars from 9.6 billion dollars recorded in the previous year. Further, stocks related to power industry ended higher, as the Central Electricity Authority estimation that power generation from thermal, hydel and nuclear plants is expected to grow 6.5% this fiscal, nearly double of last year’s rise of 3.5%.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 278.60 points or 0.75% to 37,393.48, while the CNX Nifty was up by 100.10 points or 0.90% to 11,257.10.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 37,518.94 and 37,052.30, respectively and there were 22 stocks advancing against 09 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.27%, while Small cap index was up by 0.25%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.53%, Basic Materials up by 1.52%, Realty up by 1.34%, Metal up by 1.33% and Power up by 1.33%, while Telecom down by 1.15%, Healthcare down by 0.13% and FMCG down by 0.02% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 3.64%, Tata Motors up by 3.48%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.72%, Infosys up by 2.47% and Vedanta up by 2.22%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 4.07%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.87%, Indusind Bank down by 1.37%, Coal India down by 1.29% and ITC down by 0.81% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has requested the states and central ministries to identify key projects where Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be developed to resolve problems in areas like health, education and agriculture. He said “Niti Aayog has a team that works on the AI programme and I would like to extend all help in providing necessary support, connecting to the concerned stakeholders and any other matter that may be required.”

As per to Niti Aayog's estimates, AI has the potential to add $15.7 trillion to the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the year 2030, making it the biggest commercial opportunity in today's fast changing economy. For India, an incremental $957 billion could be added to the GDP by 2035 by adopting AI, boosting India's annual growth by 1.3 percentage points by 2035.

In June 2018, the government’s think-tank Niti Aayog unveiled the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence which is aimed at positioning India as a trailblazer for emerging economies. The strategy strives to leverage AI for inclusive economic growth and social development. It identified five sectors for a more focused government involvement to promote the adoption of AI. The focus sectors are healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities and infrastructure and smartmobility and transportation.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 11,281.55 and 11,143.35. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 9.11%, BPCL up by 4.85%, Bajaj Finance up by 4.04%, Indian Oil Corporation up by 3.88% and Ultratech Cement up by 3.86%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 3.32%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.26%, Indusind Bank down by 1.62%, Cipla down by 1.18% and Coal India down by 0.94% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 lost 8.60 points or 0.12% to 7,288.35 and France’s CAC fell 5.95 points or 0.11% to 5,368.31, while Germany’s DAX was up by 12.24 points or 0.1% to 12,111.81.

Asian markets ended mixed on Thursday as investors weighed hopes for trade talks against Donald Trump's ban on US firms from using foreign telecoms equipment, which has been seen as a kick against China, offsetting reports that US President Donald Trump plans to delay imposing tariffs on car imports from European Union by up to six months in order to allow negotiations to continue. Japanese shares ended down, with weak US and Chinese data as well as continued Sino-US trade frictions weighing on sentiment. Meanwhile, Chinese shares ended higher on expectations that the government will roll out measures to support growth amid external uncertainties.