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Sensex, Nifty at day’s high
Dec-17-2018

Key Indian equity benchmarks extended their gains in late afternoon session to trade near their intraday high points, despite weak opening in European markets. Gains led by Metal, Energy and Utilities along with rally in broader markets, also supported the markets. Some comfort came with deputy governor Viral Acharya’s statement that the Reserve Bank prefers fundamental changes to smoothen loan flow to micro-businesses through a public credit registry, rather than doling out forbearances. Adding some optimism, the Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the Indian government will focus on manufacturing of medical electronics, defence electronics and scaling up the manufacturing capacity of automobile electronics, as part of its plan to grow Indian digital economy to $1trillion. Traders paid no heed towards a report showing that as many as 369 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or above, have shown cost overruns to the tune of over Rs 3.58 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons.

On the sectoral front, agri stocks came under pressure, as the Agriwatch Agri Commodities Index dipped 0.19% to 107.96 during the week ended December 15, 2018, from 108.16 the previous week, while airlines stocks were trading lower, as IATA chief Alexandre de Juniac said that competitive air ticket prices are a strong stimulator for demand in India but a pricing policy that makes airlines lose too much money is a problem.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as Eurozone private sector grew at the slowest pace in more than four years during December, suggesting that the 19-nation economy is set to end this year with a whimper. The flash Composite purchasing managers' index, or PMI, which combines manufacturing and services, fell to a 49-month low of 51.3 from 52.7 in November. However, Asian markets were trading in green.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36278.00, up by 315.07 points or 0.88% after trading in a range of 36123.62 and 36296.53. There were 23 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.26%, while Small cap index was up by 0.26%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.80%, Energy up by 1.43%, Utilities up by 1.23%, Oil & Gas up by 1.22% and Power up by 1.17%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.33%, IT down by 0.32%, TECK down by 0.26%, Telecom down by 0.17% and Realty down by 0.16% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors - DVR up by 4.42%, Tata Motors up by 4.37%, Power Grid Corporation up by 3.50%, Vedanta up by 2.96% and HDFC up by 2.72%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.62%, Infosys down by 1.52%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.83%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.73% and SBI down by 0.38% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid factors like improved gross fixed capital formation and higher government expenditure, credit rating agency, Care Ratings in its latest report has said that the investment climate in India has improved. The rating agency also highlighted rising government’s spending in the sectors like infrastructure, housing and defence.

As per the report, overall capex of the government in the first 7 months of the year increased to Rs 1.77 trillion from Rs 1.62 trillion last year. Besides, capacity utilisation has also been picking up in recent times (Q1FY18 to Q4FY18). But, Care Ratings pointed that capacity utilization had a dip in the last available quarter (Q1FY19) and would need watching, noting that lower capacity utilisation can disincentives companies’ new investments.

Besides, Care Ratings said that during April-Sep 2018, new investment projects have fallen and the same happened in completed projects. The rating agency further said that implementation stalled projects have also fallen. However, improvement seen in projects revived.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10886.75, up by 81.30 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 10844.85 and 10890.60. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.34%, Power Grid Corporation up by 3.39%, HDFC up by 2.77%, Vedanta up by 2.65% and ICICI Bank up by 2.13%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.80%, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 1.60%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.52%, Infosys down by 1.42% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.81% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 132.05 points or 0.62% to 21,506.88, Straits Times advanced 31.13 points or 1.01% to 3,108.22, KOSPI rose 1.71 points or 0.08% to 2,071.09, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 13.37 points or 0.14% to 9,787.53 and Shanghai Composite gained 4.23 points or 0.16% to 2,597.97. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lost 54.85 points or 0.89% to 6,114.99 and Hang Seng was down by 6.81 points or 0.03% to 26,087.98.

All European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 dipped 22.01 points or 0.32% to 6,823.16, Germany’s DAX fell 11.68 or 0.11% points to 10,854.09 and France’s CAC was down by 15.27 points or 0.31% to 4,838.43.
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