Indian markets maintain upward momentum in early noon session

Indian equity markets maintained their upward momentum in the early noon session, following gains in energy, metal and basic materials stocks. Among blue chip stocks, Tata Steel was top gainer trading up by around 1.56%, while Hero MotoCorp was top loser down by around 0.61%. Meanwhile, the broader indices, mid cap and small cap indices were trading up by over 0.50% each. Sentiments remained up-beat with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that use of artificial intelligence (AI) in different forms can help achieve the target of making India a $5 trillion economy in the coming years. However, traders shrugged off a report stating that the rally in brent oil prices, triggered by geopolitical tensions, as a threat to the improvement in India's FY20 current account deficit (CAD) and forecasts for a balance of payment surplus.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green, in line with rebound in Wall Street overnight amid optimism that the geopolitical tensions will not have a major impact on the global economy. Back home, in sectoral front, sugar stocks were in focus as the sugar companies are expected to report a strong operational performance, driven by higher sugar realizations and lower costs. In scrip specific development, shares of Jet Airways touched the upper circuit level amid reports that South America-based Synergy Group has submitted a new expression of interest (EOI) for the beleaguered airline.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40933.32, up by 256.69 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 40892.85 and 41230.14. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.56%, while Small cap index was up by 0.84%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 1.14%, Metal up by 0.97%, Basic Materials up by 0.97%, Realty up by 0.86% and Industrials was up by 0.70%, while Telecom down by 0.46% and Consumer Durables was down by 0.17% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.56%, HDFC Bank up by 1.46%, Reliance Industries up by 1.34%, Asian Paints up by 1.14% and NTPC was up by 1.01%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.61%, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.49%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.49%, Titan Company down by 0.30% and Sun Pharma was down by 0.24% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, telecom industry has urged the government to facilitate funding for telecom companies at lower interest rates to help them reduce capital costs. Representatives from the industry met telecom ministry officials to communicate their suggestions to help the debt-ridden sector. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will compile these demands and send them to the Finance Ministry for consideration in the upcoming Budget.

Most demands made were on similar lines as before, including reduction in Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) levy and licence fees. One of the recommendations was related to input line credit. Besides, the industry has also sought removal of GST on licence fee, spectrum usage charges (SUC) and on payment of spectrum charges, and refund of accumulated input tax credit. They have also urged that telecom towers be included in definition of plant and machinery for input tax credit, and further promotion of Make in India by setting up a dedicated fund that can be used by purchaser of telecom equipment.

The industry has requested setting up of a working group with stakeholders from the telecom ministry, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the industry, which will work on preparing guidelines for adopting the principle of input line credit. The industry also sought that the payment of regulatory levy should be exempted from tax under GST. Other recommendations included reduction in USOF contribution to 3 percent, and license fee to 1 percent of adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12062.90, up by 69.85 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 12053.35 and 12152.15. There were 36 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 2.42%, Tata Steel up by 1.61%, HDFC Bank up by 1.39%, Reliance Industries up by 1.38% and Asian Paints was up by 1.28%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 1.54%, BPCL down by 0.66%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.52%, Eicher Motors down by 0.45% and Bharti Airtel was down by 0.40% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Hang Seng increased 125.40 points or 0.44% to 28,351.59, KOSPI rose 19.36 points or 0.9% to 2,174.43, Shanghai Composite gained 10.80 points or 0.35% to 3,094.21, Straits Times advanced 23.09 points or 0.72% to 3,241.95 and Nikkei 225 was hp by 356.65 points or 1.54% to 23,561.51.

On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted dropped 67.53 points or 0.56% to 11,885.83 and Jakarta Composite was down by 7.59 points or 0.12% to 6,249.81.