Sensex, Nifty extend rally in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks extended their rally in late afternoon session, with Sensex and Nifty garnering gains of over 3.50% each, despite weak opening of European markets. The street were positive, amid reports that the government is considering various options to adequately empower the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to deal with banks' stressed assets under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code following the Supreme Court order, quashing February 12 circular of the central bank. Some support also came with a private report stating that Indian retail real estate sector attracted private equity investment worth $1.2 billion during 2017-18 calendar years, double from the previous two years. The report attributed the sharp rise in private equity (PE) inflow to further liberalisation in FDI policies such as 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail and 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail under the automatic route.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as Germany's producer price inflation rose marginally in April. The figures from Destatis showed that producer prices climbed 2.5 percent year-on-year in April, faster than the 2.4 percent increase in March. The annual rate was expected to remain at 2.4 percent. Energy prices had the biggest impact on overall producer prices. Electricity prices had advanced 10.8 percent. Excluding energy, producer prices rose only 1.3 percent. However, Asian markets were trading in green.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39295.35, up by 1364.58 points or 3.60% after trading in a range of 38570.04 and 39336.66. There were 29 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 3.44%, while Small cap index was up by 3.39%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 5.65%, Capital Goods up by 5.44%, Industrials up by 5.22%, PSU up by 5.21% and Bankex up by 4.42%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 7.71%, Indusind Bank up by 6.98%, HDFC up by 6.83%, Tata Motors up by 6.54% and Larsen & Toubro up by 6.40%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.31% and Infosys down by 0.11% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, in order to protect the domestic players and to discourage cheap imports, the Government of India has started a probe into alleged dumping of digital printing plates from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) which ensures a level playing field to the Domestic Industry against the adverse impact of the unfair trade practices, has initiated an investigation after a complaint raised by a domestic manufacturer. Technova Imaging Systems had filed an application for imposition of anti-dumping duty on imports of digital offset printing plates from the five countries.

Further, DGTR said that it has sufficient evidence of dumping of the plates from certain companies of these five countries. If established that alleged dumping has caused material injury to the domestic manufacturer, the DGTR would recommend imposition of anti-dumping duty on the imports. The final call to impose the duty would be taken by the finance ministry.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11814.35, up by 407.20 points or 3.57% after trading in a range of 11591.70 and 11822.00. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 15.83%, SBI up by 7.82%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 7.59%, Indusind Bank up by 7.16% and HDFC up by 7.04%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 6.01%, Zee Entertainment down by 2.98%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.28%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.86% and Infosys down by 0.11% were the top losers.

Asian Market are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 gained 70.79 points or 0.33% to 21,320.88, Jakarta Composite soared 44.90 points or 0.77% to 5,871.77, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 21.37 points or 0.21% to 10,405.48 and KOSPI was up by 11.68 points or 0.57% to 2,067.48. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 17.05 points or 0.59% to 2,865.25 and Hang Seng was down by 119.14 points or 0.43% to 27,827.32.

All European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC lost 47.18 points or 0.87% to 5,391.05, Germany’s DAX slipped 80.91 points or 0.66% to 12,158.03 and UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 46.95 points or 0.64% to 7,301.67.