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Northward journey continues on D-Street
Feb-19-2019

Northward journey continued on Dalal Street in late afternoon session, with both Sensex and Nifty gaining 0.48% and 0.37%, respectively. Realty, Metal and Basic Materials were the major contributors to the gains, while Vedanta emerged as top gainer among all the major industry leaders in late noon deals. Domestic sentiments remained cheerful as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its board meeting on February 18 decided to transfer Rs 28,000 crore as interim dividend to the government for the period of July to December 2018. The interim surplus has been decided after a limited audit review and after applying the Economic Capital Framework. Gaining momentum also continued with a report that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet on February 20 amid heightened expectations that it will slash tax rates for the real estate sector. The panel has indicated 5 percent GST on under-construction properties and 3 percent tax in case of affordable housing category. However, in both cases, input tax credit (ITC) cannot be claimed. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said India needs fewer and mega banks, in order to achieve economies of scale in the banking sector. The finance Minister stated ‘India needs fewer and mega banks which are strong because in every sense, from borrowing rates to optimum utilisation, the economies of scale as far as banking sector is concerned are of great help’.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in red, as UK households' assessment of their financial well-being fell to the lowest level in eleven months in February. Job security perceptions weakened for the fourth straight month to lowest since January 2018, hurting the year-ahead financial health expectations. February survey showed the highest degree of pessimism regarding job security since January 2018. On the other hand, Asian markets were trading in mixed amid the US-China trade talks set to resume in Washington later in the day, as the world's two largest economies race to reach a deal by the March 1 deadline.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35668.16, up by 169.72 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 35477.47 and 35776.04. There were 22 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.94%, while Small cap index was up by 0.72%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.36%, Metal up by 2.32%, Basic Materials up by 1.50%, PSU up by 1.46% and Oil & Gas was up by 1.41%, while IT down by 1.46%, TECK down by 1.07%, Power down by 0.26% and Utilities was down by 0.07% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 3.41%, ICICI Bank up by 2.79%, SBI up by 2.37%, Tata Steel up by 2.32% and Mahindra & Mahindra was up by 2.06%. On the flip side, TCS down by 2.17%, NTPC down by 2.05%, Infosys down by 1.77%, Indusind Bank down by 1.62% and Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.53% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, referring to the jump made by India to 77 position in the ease of doing business ranking, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu has said the country’s exports have been growing for the last three years and further added that the Ministry of Commerce and industry has made a plan to improve the ease of doing business at district level.

Commerce Minister also said that government’s duty is to help industry to grow and facilitate business by simplifying regulations, and the agriculture export policy will help in creating new avenues for exports of India’s superior agricultural products.

Further, Prabhu mentioned that if GDP of districts grow by 3% it will lead to overall growth of national gross domestic product (GDP). Besides, he termed start-up India as the largest programme in the world for new business ventures and highlighted efforts being taken by the government to remove unnecessary hurdles.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10680.45, up by 39.50 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 10635.25 and 10722.85. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 3.28%, JSW Steel up by 2.90%, Grasim Industries up by 2.84%, BPCL up by 2.52% and ICICI Bank was up by 2.52%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 2.51%, TCS down by 2.13%, Infosys down by 2.11%, Wipro down by 2.05% and Indusind Bank was down by 1.71% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in mixed; Shanghai Composite gained 1.29 points or 0.05% to 2,755.65, Nikkei 225 surged 20.80 points or 0.1% to 21,302.65, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 6.98 points or 0.07% to 10,152.26, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.21 points or 0% to 6,498.03. On the other hand, Hang Seng decreased 118.88 points or 0.42% to 28,228.13, KOSPI fell 5.26 points or 0.24% to 2,205.63 and Straits Times was down by 2.25 points or 0.07% to 3,263.72.

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 25.30 points or 0.35% to 7,194.17 and France’s CAC declined 5.31 points or 0.1% to 5,163.23, while Germany’s DAX was up by 6.91 points or 0.06% to 11,306.11.
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