Indian equities remain in green terrain

Indian equity benchmarks continued their trade in green territory in afternoon session, on buying by funds and retail investors amid firm cues from the global market and falling crude oil prices. Sentiments remained positive after the Economic Survey, tabled in Parliament by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman projected GDP (gross domestic product) growth at 7 percent in the 2019-20 fiscal year from an estimated 6.8 percent in the previous year. Investment rate has been seen picking up in FY20 on higher credit growth and improved demand. Some support also came with commerce & industry minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that India will get additional $217 million of revenue from the retaliatory tariffs it imposed on 28 American products. However, gains remained capped as some concern came with private report showing that India’s monsoon rains in the week ending on Wednesday were below average for the fifth time in a row, although the deficit was the lowest since the start of the season, after it revived in central and western regions.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, tracking solid gains on Wall Street as data pointed to slowing economic growth in the United States, bolstering the prospect of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve as soon as this month. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39909.95, up by 70.70 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 39858.33 and 39976.53. There were 19 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.13%, while Small cap index was up by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.94%, Realty up by 1.67%, Basic Materials up by 0.66%, Bankex up by 0.63% and Auto was up by 0.48%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.55%, Metal down by 0.44%, Capital Goods down by 0.12% and IT was down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.75%, Tata Motors up by 2.59%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.57%, Indusind Bank up by 2.01% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was up by 1.61%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.86%, HCL Technologies down by 1.52%, HDFC down by 0.38%, Sun Pharma down by 0.33% and Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 0.27% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the rating agency ICRA in its latest report has said that macroeconomic uncertainties led to corrections in global prices of aluminium, copper and zinc in the last one year. It also said that the production growth of these three non-ferrous metals was even lower than the rise in demand. It said even though international prices of the three non-ferrous metals viz. aluminium, copper and zinc have witnessed corrections of 20 percent, 13 percent and 16 percent, respectively in the last one year, primarily due to macroeconomic uncertainties on the back of ongoing trade wars and other country-specific factors, the fundamental supply-demand balance suggests otherwise.

ICRA has stated that while global consumption growth of aluminium and copper during the first quarter of 2019 was muted at 1.4 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively, as against 4 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, in 2018, consumption of zinc registered a de-growth of 1.3 percent as against 0.3 percent de-growth in the last year. It also said that despite muted consumption levels, markets of the three key non-ferrous metals continued to remain in deficit in this period, with shortages in fact expanding on a Y-o-Y basis, as production growth was even lower than the growth in demand.

According to the report, the slowdown in production growth of aluminium and copper was in turn a result of capacity constraints, which is unlikely to improve significantly in 2019. It also said that production of zinc may improve in the second half of the year, which may bring the market back into a balance. It noted that for the calendar year 2019, while deficits in the aluminium and copper markets are likely to expand, the zinc market is expected to be balanced. Consequently, it said the risk of a sharp correction in base metal prices from the current levels seems low in the near term purely based on fundamentals. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11944.20, up by 27.45 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 11923.65 and 11961.30. There were 31 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were UPL up by 5.43%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 3.26%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.65%, Tata Motors up by 2.50% and Indusind Bank was  up by 1.97%. On the flip side, Titan company down by 2.95%, Tata Steel down by 1.90%, HCL Technologies down by 1.48%, Bharti Infratel down by 0.51% and Coal India was down by 0.46% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 64.29 points or 0.3% to 21,702.45, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 32.13 points or 0.3% to 10,775.90, Jakarta Composite soared 17.30 points or 0.27% to 6,379.92, KOSPI rose 12.71 points or 0.61% to 2,108.73 and Straits Times advanced 6.45 points or 0.19% to 3,374.25.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 20.66 points or 0.69% to 2,994.60 and Hang Seng decreased 30.13 points or 0.1% to 28,825.01.