Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended Wednesday’s trade in green terrain that marked a second straight day of gain for the markets, with Nifty settled around 11,850. The indices had fallen marginally in the beginning of trade, tracking feeble global cues. Some concern also came with Former RBI deputy governor Rakesh Mohan said manufacturing growth is not consistent with India's overall economic growth figures. He added that the country cannot grow at 8 per cent without manufacturing sector recording 10 per cent growth. However, markets soon recouped losses to trade on a positive note, as sentiments turned optimistic with Federation of Indian Export Organisations’ (FIEO) statement that the government's focus to improve logistics, ease of doing business and modern trade infrastructure will help exports to touch $1 trillion in the next three years. It added that India has huge potential to boost its exports of goods and services from the current $535 billion.

Key indices added some gains in last leg of trade, taking support from the Employees' State Insurance Corporation's (ESIC) gross payroll data showing that Job creation was slightly up at 10.88 lakh in April as compared with 10.77 lakh in the year-ago month. Gross new enrolments in 2018-19 stood at 1.49 crore, indicating that these many jobs were created in the financial year. Traders took note of report that the government will come out with a national e-commerce policy within 12 months to facilitate achieving holistic growth of the sector. 

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday after top Federal Reserve officials dented hopes for a big interest rate cut next month, while traders are also fretting over this week’s meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. European markets were trading in green. Back home, the real estate sector were in focus with private report indicating that private equity investment in real estate rose 26 percent in the first half of this year to USD 3.9 billion (nearly Rs 28,000 crore) driven by higher inflow in commercial and warehousing projects. Power stocks too were in focus with the government’s statement that India plans to add 500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy to its electricity grid by 2030, in a bid to clean up air in its cities and increase the share of renewables in its electricity grid. 

The BSE Sensex ended at 39580.71, up by 145.77 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 39319.64 and 39674.22. There were 20 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.83%, while Small cap index was up by 0.45%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.92%, Power up by 2.10%, Utilities up by 1.78%, Basic Materials up by 1.63% and Realty up by 1.47%, while IT down by 0.69%, TECK down by 0.63%, Telecom down by 0.17%, Consumer Durables down by 0.13% and Energy down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 3.75%, Yes Bank up by 3.68%, Sun Pharma up by 3.55%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.31% and HDFC Bank up by 1.29%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.06%, Infosys down by 0.96%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.58%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.55% and Tata Motors down by 0.44% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over exports growth, exporters body Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has said that exports are likely to touch $1 trillion in the next 3 years with the help of the government's focus to improve logistics, ease of doing business and modern trade infrastructure. FIEO President Ganesh Kumar Gupta stated that the country has huge potential to boost its exports of goods and services from the current $535 billion.

He said with steps like special focus on cutting logistics cost and time, further improvement in ease of doing business, proper implementation of government policies for exporters and timely refund of taxes will helps the country touch $1 trillion exports in the next three years. He said the logistics time, cost and inadequate trade-related infrastructure are impacting the exports. He added that reduction of logistics cost by 10% will help boost the country's exports by about 5-8%.

In order to develop logistics sector in an integrated way, Gupta said that it is important to focus on new technology, improved investment, skilling, removing bottlenecks, improving intermodal transportation, automation, single window system for giving clearances, and simplifying processes. He also said that timely refund of taxes such as goods and services tax will help exporters deal with the liquidity crunch problem. There is also a need to focus on the export of Geographical Indication (GI) products and the government should give adequate funds for the marketing of these goods to push their shipments.

The CNX Nifty ended at 11840.10, up by 43.65 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 11757.55 and 11871.85. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 5.05%, JSW Steel up by 4.03%, Power Grid up by 3.52%, Sun Pharma up by 3.36% and Hindalco up by 3.11%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Britannia Industries down by 2.80%, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 1.70%, Infosys down by 1.29%, Indusind Bank down by 1.16% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.97% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 11.00 points or 0.15% to 7,433.43, France’s CAC increased 10.05 points or 0.18% to 5,524.62 and Germany’s DAX increased 66.89 points or 0.55% to 12,295.33.

Asian markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday after comments from Federal Reserve officials tempered rate cut hopes. Fed Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell pushed back against pressure from President Trump to cut interest rates, saying that monetary policy should not overreact to any individual data point or short-term swing in sentiment. Separately, well-known Fed dove Bullard said that a 50 bps rate cut in July would be too much. Investors also awaited the outcome of the G20 summit this week for directional cues. Chinese shares ended lower, dragged down by financials as caution prevailed ahead of the Trump-XI meeting. Further, Japanese shares ended down after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the US central bank is ‘insulated from short-term political pressures,’ dampening market hopes the central bank would deliver a half-point interest-rate cut in July.