Bourses hold gains in late afternoon session

Key Indian benchmarks held their gains in late afternoon session, tracking firm European markets. Optimism spread on the street, after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley released the NITI Aayog's strategy for New India, a paper envisaging goals for the country in the 75th year of its Independence in 2022. According to the NITI Aayog strategy paper, the government aims to increase India's tax-to-GDP ratio to 22 per cent and accelerate economic growth rate to 8 per cent. The street also got encouragement with Union Minister Giriraj Singh’s statement that the government will set up 20 additional technology centres to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). These centres support MSMEs by giving them access to advanced manufacturing technologies, skilling manpower and providing technical and business advisory support.

In late noon deals, the market participants paid no heed towards a private report stating that the overall consumer confidence has slipped in the month of December, with liquidity crunch, high inflation and  rising interest rates leading to pessimism. The India Primary Consumer Sentiment Index (Consumer Confidence) has dropped by 0.6% over the previous month of November, signalling growing pessimism about the future prospects of the economy. On the sectoral front, agri stocks were buzzing, with Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh’s statement that India has achieved food security and become a net exporter of agriculture commodities.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, despite Germany's business confidence eased for a fourth straight month in December to its lowest level in two years, as businesses were increasingly worried about the political developments in Europe and a slowing global growth, suggesting that the biggest economy in the euro area may slide into a technical recession. The Munich-based ifo Institute reported that the Ifo Business Climate Index dropped to 101 from 102 in November. The street had expected a score of 101.7. Asian markets were also trading in green, ahead of the Fed decision. The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates for the fourth time this year later today, but the statement accompanying the rate decision is likely to be dovish amid rising risks to financial stability.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36518.03, up by 170.95 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 36381.87 and 36540.88. There were 21 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining, while 2 stocks remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.42%, while Small cap index was up by 1.04%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.84%, Telecom up by 1.82%, PSU up by 1.34%, Consumer Disc up by 1.19% and Power up by 1.19%, while IT down by 1.04% and TECK down by 0.67% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 3.62%, Asian Paints up by 3.36%, SBI up by 2.36%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.16% and Wipro up by 1.76%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.69%, Indusind Bank down by 1.55%, Infosys down by 1.49%, TCS down by 0.92% and HDFC Bank down by 0.68% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, highlighting the country’s tremendous progress in agriculture, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh has said that India has achieved food security and become a net exporter of agriculture commodities.

The Agriculture Minister listed the various series of focused programmes introduced by the government to double farmers’ income by 2022, such as Soil Health Card, organic farming, crop insurance, irrigation, e-NAM and focus on strengthening post-harvest management so as to ensure better returns to the farmers.

Besides, Radha Mohan called for extending cooperation between India and Turkey through greater interaction among government agricultural institutions, experts, scientists and agro business. He also urged both sides to prioritize the sectors for cooperation and also identify nodal officers so that progress can be made on the MoU signed between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the MoU was signed between India and Turkey based on which the 1st Meeting of the Steering Committee was held in India in 2010. A Work Plan had also been prepared.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10972.35, up by 63.65 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 10928.00 and 10983.10. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 7.24%, Bharti Infratel up by 4.28%, Axis Bank up by 3.86%, Asian Paints up by 3.61% and Bajaj Finserv up by 3.58%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 2.61%, Sun Pharma down by 1.68%, Infosys down by 1.60%, Indusind Bank down by 1.51% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.39% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Straits Times advanced 13.07 points or 0.43% to 3,058.61, Hang Seng increased 51.14 points or 0.20% to 25,865.39, KOSPI rose 16.73 points or 0.81% to 2,078.84, Jakarta Composite soared 94.22 points or 1.55% to 6,176.09 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 64.39 points or 0.66% to 9,783.21.On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 27.09 points or 1.05% to 2,549.56 and Nikkei 225 was down by 127.53 points or 0.6% to 20,987.92.

All European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 rose 27.86 points or 0.42% to 6,729.45, Germany’s DAX surged 19.47 or 0.18% points to 10,760.36 and France’s CAC was up by 11.21 points or 0.24% to 4,765.29.