Firm trade persists on Dalal Street

Key barometer gauges continued firm trade in afternoon session, on gains in bluechips like Axis Bank, SBI and Maruti Suzuki amid rising rupee and tumbling crude prices. Domestic sentiments remained optimistic with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) statement that it has decided to scale up the amount of liquidity infusion by Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 50,000 crore this month after a review of the evolving liquidity conditions. The RBI also announced to conduct the purchase of government securities under Open Market Operations (OMOs) for Rs 150 billion on December 20. The markets also drew some comfort with Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs P K Das’ statement that the next three months would see the Centre put in place changes in policy and procedures to ensure India further improves its position in the ‘Ease of Doing Business Report-2019’. Traders also took a note of Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh stating that India has achieved food security and become a net exporter of agriculture commodities.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, ahead of Federal Reserve policy decision with opinions split on whether or not it should hike interest rates again. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36439.34, up by 92.26 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 36381.87 and 36500.35. 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 1.47%, while Small cap index was up by 1.07%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.02%, Basic Materials up by 1.69%, PSU up by 1.09%, Consumer Disc up by 1.06% and Telecom up by 1.02%, while IT down by 1.51% and TECK down by 1.17% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 3.03%, Axis Bank up by 2.33%, SBI up by 2.03%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.20% and Yes Bank up by 1.06%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.97%, Sun Pharma down by 1.50%, TCS down by 1.19%, HDFC Bank down by 0.49% and Vedanta down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India has been ranked 108th in the World Economic Forum's latest gender gap index, same as 2017. However, India has improved in wage equality for similar work and has been able to fully close the tertiary education gender gap for the first time. According to the WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2018, while India has many challenges as it ranks 142nd out of total 149 countries in the economic opportunity and participation sub index, it also has a few achievements.

WEF has said that India needs to make improvements across the board, from women's participation to getting more women into senior and professional roles. It noted that India continues to rank third-lowest in the world on health and survival, remaining the world's least-improved country on this sub index over the past decade. In fact, it said India actually widens the gender gap on this sub index this year.

However, on the positive side, the report indicated that India has slightly improved in WEF's wage equality for similar work indicator, where it stood at 72nd place. It also noted that the country has also closed its tertiary education enrolment gap for the first time in 2018 and has managed to keep its primary and secondary gaps closed for the third year running. It added that India has the second-largest artificial intelligence (AI) workforce, but one of the largest AI gender gaps, with only 22% of roles filled by women.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10954.45, up by 45.75 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 10928.00 and 10962.60. There were 35 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 6.84%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.79%, Ultratech Cement up by 3.78%, Bajaj Finance up by 3.50% and Asian Paints up by 2.95%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 2.64%, Infosys down by 2.05%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.98%, Sun Pharma down by 1.55% and TCS down by 1.21% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Straits Times advanced 16.03 points or 0.53% to 3,061.57, Hang Seng increased 32.87 points or 0.13% to 25,847.12, KOSPI rose 16.73 points or 0.81% to 2,078.84, Jakarta Composite soared 68.69 points or 1.13% to 6,150.56 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 64.39 points or 0.66% to 9,783.21.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 26.23 points or 1.02% to 2,550.42 and Nikkei 225 was down by 127.53 points or 0.6% to 20,987.92.