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Local equities maintain upward momentum
Apr-16-2019

Local equity markets maintained their upward momentum in the morning session, following gains in BANKEX, Capital Goods and Energy stocks amid positive global sentiment. Buying crept in with a report that India’s exports rose to a five-month high of 11% in March on account of higher growth mainly in Pharma, chemicals and engineering sectors, marking the outbound shipments at $331 billion for FY18-19. Local investors also cheered with a report that the government’s war on Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) could give a boost of 60 basis points to India’s GDP in FY20. The measures taken by the Modi government including recovery of bad loans and bank recapitalisation will reduce costs for lenders. Domestic sentiment was buoyed on India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) report that they predicted that this year’s southwest monsoon rainfall to be ‘near normal,’ at 96% of the benchmark long-period average (LPA), in what augurs well for the country’s food grain production, but not necessarily for farmers’ income as high production in recent years have co-existed with rural distress.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green amid report that US-Japan trade talks kicked off and the Bank of Japan chief flagged risks of increasing trade protectionism to the global economic growth outlook. Back home, a report stated that Reserve Bank will cut its key policy rates by another 25 basis points, after Governor Shaktikanta Das’ weekend speech focusing on ways to revive growth. Beside, Industry Body SEA showed that India’s vegetable oil imports rose 26% to 14.46 lakh tonne during March because of a sharp increase in inward shipments of refined palm oil from Malaysia.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39268.69, up by 362.85 points or 0.93% after trading in a range of 39038.81 and 39277.96. There were 27 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.22%, while Small cap index was up by 0.35%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were BANKEX up by 1.16%, Capital Goods up by 1.12%, Energy up by 1.09%, FMCG up by 0.96% and Oil & Gas was up by 0.86%, while Realty down by 0.59% was the losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 3.00%, Asian Paints up by 1.93%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.89%, TCS up by 1.65% and IndusInd Bank was up by 1.33%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.26%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.17%, Infosys down by 0.75% and Bharti Airtel was down by 0.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that fast economic growth and rapid urbanisation would slash the number of people in extreme poverty by 2021 and it will completely be ended in the decade after that. The Minister also said the number of people who live in poverty will drop to below 15% in the next three years and to a negligible level in the 10 years after that. He added economic problems could be addressed as India remained the world's fastest growing major economy.

He further mentioned urbanization will increase, the size of the middle-class will grow and the economy will expand manifolds.  These will add to the number of jobs, and as the experience of the past three decades have shown in the liberalised economy, every section of citizens will benefit.

He underlined that economic growth in recent years had generated enough revenue for states to work more on poverty alleviation, job creation and improving healthcare and education. Besides, according to the World Bank, more than 21% of India's 1.3 billion people lived on less than $1.90 a day in 2011, when the last census was taken, according to the World Bank.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11784.45, up by 94.10 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 11731.55 and 11787.05. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 3.07%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.07%, Asian Paints up by 1.99%, Bharti Infratel up by 1.86% and Hindalco was up by 1.76%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.60%, Infosys down by 0.89%, Cipla down by 0.87%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.43% and BPCL was down by 0.29% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green, Hang Seng increased 167.98 points or 0.56% to 29,978.70, Nikkei 225 surged 57.08 points or 0.26% to 22,226.19, Shanghai Composite gained 35.27 points or 1.11% to 3,213.06, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 28.81 points or 0.26% to 10,904.41, Jakarta Composite soared 11.86 points or 0.18% to 6,447.01, Straits Times advanced 4.87 points or 0.15% to 3,330.73 and KOSPI rose 3.28 points or 0.15% to 2,246.16.

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