Domestic bourses continue to trade in positive terrain

Indian stock markets continued to trade in positive terrain in early noon session with Sensex and Nifty trading above 39,100 and 11,600 levels respectively. Buying in Consumer Durables, Power, Auto and IT stocks helped markets to trade higher. Meanwhile, broader indices were also trading in green, supporting their larger peers. Traders were getting encouragement as Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is planning to set up a single window system to support foreign investors, who want to invest in India. The single-window system may have representatives from both the Centre and state governments. The system will help in getting all relevant approvals and clearances required by foreign investors. Some comfort also came with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s statement that the government will soon make changes to the definition of a micro, small and medium enterprise and hoped to generate five crore jobs in the MSME sector in five years.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as dulled developments on Brexit overnight meant the deadline for the UK to leave the EU would likely be delayed again. Back on street, in scrip specific developments, shares of Jubilant FoodWorks gained despite reporting marginal fall of 3.40% in its net profit at Rs 72.98 crore for the quarter under review as compared to Rs 75.55 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Besides, Sterling & Wilson Solar surged on securing order for 1.09 GW DC solar farm in Middle East.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39138.04, up by 174.20 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 38866.08 and 39170.12. There were 20 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.28%, while Small cap index was up by 0.56%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.62%, Power up by 0.99%, Auto up by 0.98%, IT up by 0.93% and PSU was up by 0.76%, while Telecom down by 0.55%, Oil & Gas down by 0.30%, Industrials down by 0.12%, Energy down by 0.10% and Capital Goods was down by 0.06% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 2.42%, HCL Technologies up by 2.32%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.70%, ICICI Bank up by 1.45% and Tata Motors - DVR was up by 1.45%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.07%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.90%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.75%, Asian Paints down by 0.52% and Larsen & Toubro was down by 0.48% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said the government will soon make changes to the definition of a micro, small and medium enterprise (MSMEs) and hoped to generate five crore jobs in the MSME sector in five years. In February 2018, the Union Cabinet had approved change in the basis of classifying MSMEs from ‘investment in plant & machinery/equipment’ to ‘annual turnover’.

Gadkari mentioned that the update in the definition of MSMEs may allow a single definition for purposes related to taxation, investment, etc. He also said that the new definition is likely to be effected through an amendment to the MSME Act and may lead to further improvement in India's ease of doing business scenario.

The minister has observed that MSMEs are at the heart of industrial activity in India, contributing 29 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) and have created 11 crore jobs till now. He said 'now, the mission for five years is that we need to create more than five crore jobs in five years, particularly in tribal, rural and agricultural areas'. He added that the government is already in the process of sanctioning 13 clusters under the Solar Vastra scheme and every cluster has a potential of creating 3,000-3,500 jobs.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11637.15, up by 48.80 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 11554.40 and 11647.35. There were 31 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining, while 2 stocks remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 3.55%, Titan Company up by 2.54%, SBI up by 2.44%, HCL Technologies up by 2.35% and Bajaj Finserv was up by 2.07%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 4.98%, Zee Entertainment down by 2.22%, Grasim Industries down by 1.46%, Indusind Bank down by 1.13% and Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.89% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 225.81 points or 0.84% to 26,560.39, Taiwan Weighted dropped 31.58 points or 0.28% to 11,239.67, Straits Times trembled 18.40 points or 0.58% to 3,142.27, KOSPI fell 9.22 points or 0.44% to 2,079.64, Shanghai Composite declined 4.06 points or 0.14% to 2,950.32 and Jakarta Composite was down by 2.80 points or 0.04% to 6,222.70. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 was up by 76.55 points or 0.34% to 22,625.45.