Indian markets maintain upward momentum in early noon session

Indian equity markets maintained their upward momentum in the early noon session, despite negative global sentiment, ahead of May F&O Expiry. Healthy buying was observed in blue-chip stocks like NTPC, Bharti Airtel and TCS. Sentiments got boost as the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has proposed to formulate a national retail policy to support growth of domestic trade. This proposal is part of the 100-day action plan prepared by the department, under the commerce and industry ministry, for the new government. The national retail policy will be formulated to support development of the sector that would benefit 65 million small traders. Traders paid no heed to the report that the RBI may leave repo rate unchanged next week due to uncertainty over oil prices, monsoon, weak transmission of monetary policy and on expected pick-up in inflation. The central bank will also evaluate the implications of policies of the new government for growth and inflation. Meanwhile, merger and acquisition and private equity deal values witnessed 79 per cent drop in April despite easing of Indo-Pakistan tensions, strengthening of rupee against dollar and encouraging domestic sentiment on the back of easing inflation.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as investors worry that the trade war between the U.S. and China will derail global economic and corporate profit growth as it drags on with no sign of a resolution. Back on street, in scrip specific development, shares of Adani Power edged up on reporting a net profit of Rs 634.64 crore for the quarter under review against net loss of Rs 653.25 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39723.01, up by 220.96 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 39500.56 and 39758.60. There were 22 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.11%, while Small cap index was up by 0.22%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 0.93%, Power up by 0.90%, IT up by 0.80%, TECK up by 0.79% and Utilities was up by 0.74%, while Auto down by 0.54%, Metal down by 0.29%, Consumer Durables down by 0.27%, Consumer Discretionary down by 0.17% and Realty was down by 0.05% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.41%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.68%, TCS up by 1.64%, Yes Bank up by 1.62% and Asian Paints was up by 1.09%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.99%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.79%, ONGC down by 0.85%, Tata Steel down by 0.79% and Tata Motors was down by 0.71% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, global airlines’ grouping the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its passenger traffic data has indicated that India’s domestic air traffic recorded negative growth rate for the first time in over five years during the month of April 2019, largely due to the demise of Jet Airways. It noted that after a sustained period of very strong growth, Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs) in the domestic India market are currently 0.5% lower than their year-ago level, down from a 15% year-on-year pace as recently as December. It added that India was one of the world's fastest growing domestic aviation market for the previous many months.

According to the data, Jet Airways, which was flying for more than 25 years, temporarily suspended all its domestic and international flights in April after it ran out of cash. It noted that flight cancellations and subsequent grounding of the airline adversely impacted seat capacity in the domestic market which also resulted in fares going up. It also highlighted that over the past five years, annual growth has averaged a pace close to 20%. It also pointed out that rising airfares in recent months are also likely to have weighed upon passenger demand.

IATA has stated that, globally, RPKs rose 4.3% in April 2019 as compared to same month in the previous year. It also experienced solid but not exceptional rising demand for air connectivity in April. This partly is owing to the timing of Easter, but also reflects the slowing global economy. It said ‘driven by tariffs and trade disputes, global trade is falling, and as a result, we are not seeing traffic growing at the same levels as a year ago.’ However, it noted that airlines are doing a very good job of managing aircraft utilisation, leading to record load factors.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11917.55, up by 56.45 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 11859.40 and 11928.30. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 2.37%, Yes Bank up by 1.68%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.67%, TCS up by 1.64% and UPLwas up by 1.43%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.16%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.83%, Eicher Motors down by 1.76%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.52% and Cipla was down by 1.20% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 83.14 points or 0.4% to 20,920.23, Hang Seng decreased 156.10 points or 0.57% to 27,079.61, Straits Times trembled 26.91 points or 0.85% to 3,136.37, Shanghai Composite was down by 25.94 points or 0.89% to 2,888.76. On the other hand, KOSPI rose 10.79 points or 0.53% to 2,034.11 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 81.21 points or 0.79% to 10,382.99.