Telecom stocks rise

Key indices hovered in small range with modest gains in mid-morning trade. At 11:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 176.13 points or 0.49% at 36,043.57. The Nifty 50 index was up 55.60 points or 0.52% at 10,848.10. Telecom stocks rose. The Sensex was trading above the psychological 36,000 level after regaining that level in opening trade.

Key benchmark indices drifted higher in early trade on buying demand in index pivotals. Stocks held onto gains in morning trade.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.06%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.46%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1631 shares rose and 483 shares fell. A total of 112 shares were unchanged.

Bajaj Auto rose 0.35% after the company reported 10% growth in its total vehicles sales to 3.93 lakh units in February 2019 over February 2018. Bajaj Auto's total domestic sales rose 4% to 2.21 lakh units, while total exports rose 19% to 1.71 lakh units in January 2019 over January 2018. The announcement was made during market hours today, 1 March 2019.

Telecom stocks rose. Vodafone Idea (up 0.34%), MTNL (up 5.14%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 1.31%) and Reliance Communications (up 1.08%) gained.

Bharti Airtel dropped 3.85%. Bharti Airtel said that its board approved raising upto Rs 32,000 crore through rights issue of upto Rs 25,000 crore and perpetual bond with equity credit upto Rs 7000 crore. Rights issue price is set at Rs 220 per fully paid equity share. The company will issue 19 rights shares for every 67 equity shares held by eligible shareholders as on the record date. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 28 February 2019.

Shares of Bharti Infratel rose 0.6%. Bharti Infratel is a provider of tower and related infrastructure and is a unit of Bharti Airtel.

On the macro front, India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth moderated to six-quarters low of 6.6% in Q3 of 2018-19 from 7% growth recorded in the previous quarter and 7.7% improvement in the corresponding quarter last year. Quarterly Gross Value Added (GVA) growth also eased to 6.3% in Q3 of 2018-19 from 6.8% in Q2 of 2018-19 and 7.3% in Q3FY of 2017-18. The data was released after market hours yesterday, 28 February 2019.

The GDP growth estimate for 2018-19 is revised downward to 7% from 7.2% growth estimated at first advances estimate level released in January 2019. The GDP growth for agriculture sector is expected to ease to 2.7% and services sector to 7.4% in 2018-19, while industrial sector growth estimate to accelerate to 7.7% in 2018-19.

The output of eight core industries comprising 40.27%of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) rose 1.8% in January 2019 over January 2018. Its cumulative output increased 4.5% in April to January 2018-19. The data was released after market hours yesterday, 28 February 2019.

Overseas, Asian shares rose on Friday, driven by a rally in Chinese markets after index publisher MSCI announced it would boost the proportion of mainland shares in its global benchmarks. Global index provider MSCI said it would quadruple the weighting of mainland shares in its global benchmarks later this year, potentially drawing more than $80 billion of fresh foreign inflows to the world's second-biggest economy.

A private gauge of China's factory activity rebounded to its three-month high in February. The Caixin China manufacturing purchasing managers' index rose to 49.9 in February from 48.3 in January, Caixin Media Co. and research firm Markit said on Friday.

U.S. stocks finished lower Thursday after a sudden breakdown in denuclearization talks with North Korea weighed on sentiment. Better-than-expected fourth-quarter gross domestic product data helped to offset some of the selling pressure during the session.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders reportedly said that a U.S.-North Korean nuclear agreement couldn't be reached at the summit in Hanoi because the isolated nation wanted more sanctions lifted than Trump would allow. On Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the U.S. would abandon for now its threat to raise tariffs to 25% on $200 billion of Chinese goods on March 2.

The Commerce Department's estimate of fourth-quarter GDP growth showed the U.S. economy growing at a rate of 2.6%. GDP grew at 2.9% during 2018, according to the preliminary estimates by the Commerce Department, representing the best growth in three years. However, expansion tapered from heady levels of a 4.2% growth rate in the second quarter of 2018.

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