Bulls keep tight control over Dalal Street on Thursday

Bulls kept tight control over Dalal Street on Thursday, with Sensex & Nifty garnering around 200 & 50 points, respectively. The start of the day was fabulous, as Cabinet cleared the structure of the proposed exclusive alternate investment fund (AIF) for the real estate sector with an initial corpus of Rs 25,000 crore, more inclusive terms and a commitment to continue to provide more budget funds, in addition to the initial Rs 10,000 crore, as & when demand arises. Adding some relief, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the government is on track to meet the target of cutting India's oil import dependence by 10 percent by 2020.

Key indices erased all of their gains to turn negative in noon deals, after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated that the Indian government needs to become more ‘transparent’ on the fiscal numbers as it is a ‘laggard’ among the G20 peers on this front.  However, benchmarks managed to gain traction again during last hours of the trade to settle near their intraday high points, on account of positive cues from the global markets. Market participants took encouragement with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that India is taking several steps to create an enabling ecosystem for investors.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, even though Germany's industrial production declined more than expected in September. The data from Destatis revealed that industrial production fell 0.6 percent month-on-month in September, reversing a 0.4 percent rise in August. Asian markets ended higher, as Taiwan's consumer price inflation eased unexpectedly in October. The data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics showed that the consumer price index climbed 0.39 percent year-on-year in October, after a 0.43 percent rise in both August and September.

Back home, the oil and gas sector stocks ended lower, even after Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that India will see a huge $100 billion investment in creating oil and gas infrastructure by the year 2024 as the world's third-largest energy consumer steps up spending to meet growing demand. Further, the airline industry stocks remained in focus, after the International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for global air freight markets showing that demand measured in freight tonne kilometres decreased by 4.5 per cent in September 2019 compared to the same period in 2018.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 183.96 points or 0.45% to 40,653.74, while the CNX Nifty was up by 46.00 points or 0.38% to 12,012.05.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low 40,688.27 and 40,421.07, respectively and there were 16 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.69%, while Small cap index was up by 0.54%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.96%, Metal up by 0.95%, Realty up by 0.78%, Consumer Durables up by 0.75% and Telecom up by 0.68%, while PSU down by 0.76%, Oil & Gas down by 0.62%, Capital Goods down by 0.50%, Utilities down by 0.45% and Auto down by 0.26% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 3.02%, Indusind Bank up by 2.88%, Reliance Industries up by 1.86%, ITC up by 1.78% and Vedanta up by 1.74%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 3.27%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.93%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.80%, ONGC down by 1.69% and Axis Bank down by 1.67% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to protect the interests of farmers and boost agriculture exports, Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar has called for a review of regulations under the Essential Commodities Act (ECA). The Act seeks to regulate the production, supply and distribution of commodities that the government declares 'essential' in order to ensure its availability to people at fair price. The list of such essential commodities include drugs, fertilisers, pulses and edible oils, and petroleum and petroleum products.

Kumar said that organic or natural farming is the sunrise sector of Indian agriculture and exports from this sector have risen significantly and have great potential for growth. He also urged the agricultural scientists to evaluate organic or natural farming on merit. He said ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) will meet our food security requirements and lead to a healthier and wealthier India.’ Besides, he stressed that soil degradation was taking place rapidly, and organic or natural farming was the only way to reverse this. He noted that it is essential to increase the share of ZBNF in Indian agriculture and urged all farmers to examine how they can move away from the use of chemicals in agriculture and adopt zero budget natural farming practices.

Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman further said ‘today, India is foodgrain surplus. If we improve our post production value chain, our foodgrain surplus shall be efficiently utilized. We have to improve on labour productivity and yield in all crops, and focus on capacity building of farmers. Our costs must be globally competitive. We need a second green revolution to increase farmer income and double exports.’

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 12,021.40 and 11,946.85. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 3.55%, Sun Pharma up by 3.41%, Indusind Bank up by 2.76%, Hindalco up by 2.21% and JSW Steel up by 1.95%. On the flip side, UPL down by 7.84%, Yes Bank down by 3.57%, GAIL India down by 3.55%, BPCL down by 2.20% and Cipla down by 1.88% were the top losers.

European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 30.05 points or 0.41% to 7,426.70, France’s CAC rose 13.06 points or 0.22% to 5,879.80 and Germany’s DAX was up by 111.25 points or 0.84% to 13,291.14.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Thursday on expectations that China's latest push for more tariff rollbacks won't derail progress toward the ‘phase one’ agreement. Japanese shares ended slightly higher, although some gains were capped as heavyweight Softbank Group posted its first quarterly loss in 14 years. Meanwhile, Chinese shares ended unchanged amid worries over possible delays in a first-phase US-China trade deal.