Bourses end the last day of week in green terrain

Indian equity benchmarks ended the last trading day of the week with notable gains. After a cautious start of the day, key indices remained volatile for the most part of the day, impacted with the government data report showing that consumer price index-based inflation (CPI) for August crept up slightly to 3.21% year-on-year, compared with 3.15% in July, driven by a sharp rise in food prices. Market participants also remained worried with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) statement that India's economic growth is much weaker than expected, attributing the reasons for corporate and environmental regulatory uncertainty and lingering weaknesses in some non-bank financial companies.

However, markets staged recovery in the last hours of trade, amid reports that the Reserve Bank of India is expected to go for a further rate cut in the next month's monetary policy review as inflation is expected to pan out in line with the central bank's projection. The street took some support with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the government will soon come out with guidelines on extending foreign exchange credit to exporters at affordable rates. Besides, snapping two-month declining trend, India’s industrial production measured by Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which gauges production in the industrial sector for a given period of time, stood at 4.3% in July 2019.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in green, as Spain's consumer price inflation eased to the lowest in three years in August. The final data from the statistical office INE showed that the consumer price index rose 0.3 percent year-on-year following a 0.5 percent increase in the previous month. The rate matched the estimate published on August 29. Asian markets ended mostly in green, after Japan's industrial production expanded as estimated in July. The final data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed that industrial production rose 1.3 percent month-on-month in July, in line with the preliminary estimate. On a monthly basis, growth in shipments came in at 2.7 percent in July.

Back home, the airline industry stocks remained in watch, as credit rating agency ICRA in its latest report said that the domestic passenger traffic growth during first four months of the current fiscal year (April to July) witnessed year-on-year growth of a mere 1.6 per cent primarily due to end of the tourist season. Further, stocks related to the leather and footwear sector also remained in focus, with Council for Leather Exports (CLE) stating that huge export opportunities are present in Russia for domestic leather and footwear industry. It said Russia has imported leather and footwear worth $3.9 billion in 2018, and India's exports to that country stood at only $52.6 million.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 280.71 points or 0.76% to 37,384.99, while the CNX Nifty was up by 93.10 points or 0.85% to 11,075.90.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 37,413.50 and 37,000.09, respectively and there were 26 stocks advancing against 05 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.41%, while Small cap index was up by 0.82%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.73%, PSU up by 1.95%, Consumer Durables up by 1.90%, Energy up by 1.78% and Metal up by 1.46%, while Telecom down by 0.53% and Healthcare down by 0.38% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 2.72%, ICICI Bank up by 2.61%, ONGC up by 2.34%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.79% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.79%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.35%, Sun Pharma down by 1.04%, HDFC Bank down by 0.62%, ITC down by 0.35% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.10% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest report has showed that bank credit and deposits slowed to 10.24 percent and 9.73 percent to Rs 96.80 trillion and Rs 127.80 trillion, respectively in the fortnight to August 30. In the previous fortnight to August 16, credit had increased by 11.64 percent to Rs 96.82 trillion and deposits grew by 10.15 percent to Rs 126.80 trillion. In the year-ago fortnight, advances stood at Rs 87.80 trillion and deposits at Rs 116.46 trillion.

On year-on-year basis, the non-food bank credit rose 11.4 percent in July 2019 from 10.6 percent in July 2018. Advances to the services sector decelerated to 15.2 percent in the month from 23 percent in the year-ago month.

Credit to agriculture & allied activities rose 6.8 percent in July 2019 compared with a rise of 6.6 percent in the same month last year. Loans to industry increased by 6.1 percent in July as compared to 0.3 percent a year ago. Personal loans rose 17 percent in July compared to an increase of 16.7 percent in July 2018.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 11,084.45 and 10,945.75. There were 41 stocks advancing against 09 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 6.38%, Indian Oil Corporation up by 4.82%, Titan up by 3.50%, GAIL India up by 2.86% and Vedanta up by 2.78%. On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 2.55%, Sun Pharma down by 1.40%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.39%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.02% and HDFC Bank down by 0.49% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in green; France’s CAC rose 26.82 points or 0.48% to 5,669.68 and Germany’s DAX increased 55.29 points or 0.45% to 12,465.54, while UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 1.56 points or 0.02% to 7,343.11.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Friday as investors welcomed positive developments on the Sino-US trade front and a sufficiently dovish European Central Bank (ECB) rate decision. US President Trump said he would consider an interim deal with China but would prefer a full agreement as the world's two largest economies look to end a widening trade war. The ECB cut its key interest rate and launched a sweeping package of bond purchases, bolstering expectations the Fed will make a modest quarter-point cut at its meeting next week. Hong Kong shares ended higher as investors cheered signs of a breakthrough in the year-long US-China tariff war. Japanese shares ended higher as the safe-haven yen continued to weaken following the European Central Bank's decision to resume its quantitative easing. Meanwhile, markets in China, South Korea and Taiwan were closed for public holidays.