Benchmarks continue firm trade; Telecom, Metal lead

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade firm in the early noon session amid buying in telecom, metal, realty and basic materials stocks. Sentiments got boost with data showing that after declining for four consecutive months, investments through participatory notes (P-notes) in the Indian capital market marginally rose to Rs 76,773 crore at the end of October. Some support also came with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showing 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. At present, both sensex and nifty were trading above the crucial 40,600 and 12,000 levels, respectively.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after sentiments improved in the markets followed by developments in US- China trade talks. The US and China have expressed willingness to sign an initial trade deal by the year-end. Back on street, broader markets were trading in-line with the larger peers with BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices trading up by 0.62% and 0.44%, respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2231 stocks traded, 1229 stocks advanced, while 855 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40654.36, up by 294.95 points or 0.73% after trading in a range of 40393.90 and 40662.61. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.62%, while Small cap index was up by 0.44%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 4.99%, Metal up by 2.71%, Realty up by 1.52%, Basic Materials up by 1.48% and TECK up by 0.91%, while there were no losers on sectoral indices.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 5.53%, Tata Steel up by 3.39%, Vedanta up by 2.39%, Indusind Bank up by 1.84% and Maruti Suzuki was up by 1.62%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 1.85%, ICICI Bank down by 0.83%, ONGC down by 0.52%, HCL Technologies down by 0.43% and Bajaj Auto was down by 0.24% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, 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. He also said this under-reporting has become a challenge for the government. Citing the recent faceless assessment of income tax started by the government, he assured the industry that the government would bring more transparency in the system.

The minister further said 'i promise you more changes in the system, which would be transparent and more accountability. We would be more than happy to help the industry to grow, to make more transparent system in place and I am sure you can also help us by bringing more investments.' He also said “Real estate to automobile to manufacturing, we have taken landmark decisions and will continue to support sectors across the spectrum to achieve the target of a $5 trillion economy.'

Meanwhile, Thakur asked the appliances and consumer electronics industry to tackle e-waste generated from products. He noted that India generates 1.85 million tonnes of e-waste annually. He stated that the role of companies does not end when a product is sold and added that corporates have a responsibility towards tackling the issue of e-waste which is a global challenge.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12008.95, up by 94.55 points or 0.79% after trading in a range of 11919.75 and 12009.90. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 5.49%, Hindalco up by 4.23%, Bharti Infratel up by 3.84%, Tata Steel up by 3.20% and Grasim Industries was up by 2.65%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 2.43%, Yes Bank down by 2.01%, ONGC down by 0.71%, ICICI Bank down by 0.60% and HCL Technologies was down by 0.31% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Straits Times advanced 4.93 points or 0.15% to 3,230.58, Nikkei 225 surged 181.69 points or 0.79% to 23,294.57, KOSPI rose 21.05 points or 1% to 2,123.01, Hang Seng increased 454.39 points or 1.71% to 27,049.47 and Shanghai Composite was up by 15.75 points or 0.55% to 2,901.04. On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted dropped 5.22 points or 0.05% to 11,561.58 and Jakarta Composite was down by 20.81 points or 0.34% to 6,079.43.