Local equities trade in fine fettle; Sensex surpasses 40,600 mark

Local equity benchmarks are trading in fine fettle in morning session, with Sensex and Nifty garnering gains of over half a percent. Sentiments remain optimistic with RBI’s report that India’s forex reserves rose by $441 million to a fresh lifetime high of $448.249 billion in the week to November 15 on an increase in core currency assets. Aiming for better bilateral trade ties and more people-to-people contact with India, Finland is planning to reduce the time taken to grant work visas from approximately 52 days to under 15 days by next year, further boosted traders’ sentiments. Traders also took note of a survey report from National Statistical Office (NSO) that amid criticism over high joblessness rate, the urban unemployment rate dropped to the lowest level in four quarters at 9.3% during January-March 2019. Besides, Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said that there is a ‘great need’ to institutionalise state finance commissions and helping the local bodies enhance their revenue generation capacities. He added fiscally strong states and Centre is the ‘essence’ of Indian federalism and weakness at either end poses a slew of challenges for the country.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as investors dared to hope for some progress in the endless US-China trade dispute, while the outperformance of recent US economic data gave the dollar a leg up on its peers. Back home, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur said the government has raised anxiety over fake invoices being generated in the business-to-business (B2B) segment which is impacting Goods and Services Tax (GST) mop-up.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40606.45, up by 247.04 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 40393.90 and 40613.24. There were 25 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.52%, while Small cap index was up by 0.41%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 3.95%, Metal up by 2.93%, Realty up by 1.71%, Basic Materials up by 1.34% and TECK was up by 0.91%, while Capital Goods down by 0.09% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 4.43%, Tata Steel up by 3.68%, Vedanta up by 2.71%, IndusInd Bank up by 1.66% and Tech Mahindra was up by 1.22%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 0.93%, ITC down by 0.48%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.44%, ICICI Bank down by 0.42% and HCL Tech was down by 0.39% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to provide immunity to companies taking over stressed assets from prosecution for financial crimes committed by erstwhile promoters, the government is planning to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). This will help make the insolvency process more attractive for the bidders and instil confidence in them.

The government is likely to move an amendment to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 during the current Winter Session of Parliament. The amendment comes after several companies that are vying for assets being auctioned under IBC expressed concern regarding getting into legal trouble over the cases against previous promoters.

In many of the cases under insolvency, the promoters are under investigation by various agencies. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 is the bankruptcy law of India which seeks to consolidate the existing framework by creating a single law for insolvency and bankruptcy.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11988.75, up by 74.35 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 11919.75 and 11989.30. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 5.39%, Bharti Airtel up by 4.42%, Tata Steel up by 3.63%, Bharti Infratel up by 3.04% and Vedanta was up by 2.99%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 1.68%, Yes Bank down by 1.00%, ICICI Bank down by 0.54%, Wipro down by 0.53% and ITC was down by 0.50% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Hang Seng increased 408.55 points or 1.54% to 27,003.63, Nikkei 225 surged 146.34 points or 0.63% to 23,259.22, KOSPI rose 21.88 points or 1.04% to 2,123.84, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 12.42 points or 0.11% to 11,579.22, Shanghai Composite gained 11.50 points or 0.4% to 2,896.79 and Straits Times was up by 9.09 points or 0.28% to 3,234.74. On the other slip, Jakarta Composite was down by 20.81 points or 0.34% to 6,079.43.