Indian equities turned in positive performance on Monday, December 18, paring losses seen earlier in the session. In sectoral terms, only real estate names ended in the red. Market participants were focused on the ongoing vote count of the Gujarat regional election. Players took to the sidelines at the opening as preliminary results showed a cliff-hanging vote for Bharatiya Janata, but regained confidence later in the session, when the ruling party appeared well ahead. To recap, if victorious, Bharatiya Janata will solidify its positions ahead of the general election in 2018. Recapping the benchmarks, the Nifty 50 added 0.54% to 10,388.75, and the BSE Sensex advanced 0.41% to 33,601.68. By 10:35 GMT, the USD/INR currency pair firmed 0.22% to 64,216, while EUR/INR traded up 0.51% to 75.7031. The 10-year Indian government bond yield widened to 7.161%. Notably, fertilizer producers picked up after the country’s Ministry of Finance gained parliamentary approval to spend INR 333.8 bn (USD 5.21 bn) more in fiscal 2017-2018, of which over INR 205 bn will be dedicated to the fertilizer sector. Specifically, Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore surged 2.7%. Meanwhile, Future Supply Chain Solution soared 4.8% in its debut trading session. To recap, the company raised INR 6.5 bn (USD 101 mn) in an IPO. The daily chart shows that the BSE Sensex has approached the upper line of a bullish flag. Given that there are no signs of overbuying, the benchmark can be expected to attempt to break through this line in the short term. $SENSEX, S&P BSE SENSEX INDEX / D