Local equities remain in positive mood; Sensex hits 41K mark

Local equity benchmarks have maintained their positive mood and are trading jubilantly with gains of over half percent each in the morning session, as investors globally seemed gathering confidence amid efforts to contain coronavirus. Apart from blue chips, broader indices too equally participated in the rally with both mid cap and small cap indices trading up by around 1%. Sentiments got a boost with global rating agency Moody’s Investors Service's latest report stating that economic growth projections made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget for 2020-21 appear ambitious given the structural and cyclical challenges facing the Indian economy. Some encouragement also came with a report that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India has been increasing on an annual basis and was at $34.90 billion till November of this fiscal. Beside, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the biggest priority of the government was that macroeconomic stability should be maintained or improved.

On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading in green, on hopes of additional Chinese stimulus to lessen the economic impact of a coronavirus outbreak, but risks remain as the illness continues to spread and the death toll neared 500. Back on the domestic turf, a private report highlighted that India is likely to issue at least $5 billion worth of bonds with no limits on foreign investment next year, in a bid to list the bonds on global indices and attract more foreign funds.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 41012.03, up by 222.65 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 40703.32 and 41014.57. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.56%, while Small cap index was up by 0.93%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.39%, Capital Goods up by 1.51%, Industrials up by 1.47%, Energy up by 1.22% and Oil & Gas was up by 1.03%, while IT down by 0.22% and TECK was down by 0.18% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.93%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.60%, HCL Tech up by 1.41%, Reliance Industries up by 1.31% and ICICI Bank was up by 1.30%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.08%, Infosys down by 1.55%, ITC down by 1.48%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.90% and Asian Paints was down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur has said that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India has been increasing on an annual basis and was at $34.90 billion till November of this fiscal. The FDI stood at $62 billion in the full 2018-19 fiscal, while at $60.90 billion in 2017-18 and $60.22 billion during 2016-17.

He highlighted that in spite of a global contraction in FDI inflows, FDI into India have significantly improved over the past decade to $62 billion, which accounts for 2.37 per cent of GDP in 2018-19 fiscal. He further mentioned that the success of various initiatives is reflected in the increased inflow of FDI and increase in Gross Fixed Capital formation, adding that several measures taken by the government will further boost FDI in all sectors.

Besides, he said that the investors confidence has gone up after the government took measures to improve ease of doing business, comprehensive reforms in the FDI policy and introduction of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 among others. As per the World Investment Report (WIR), 2019, India rose from twenty fifth position in 2018 and featured at ninth place with FDI contribution of 3.23 per cent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12044.20, up by 64.55 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 11953.35 and 12047.60. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 6.07%, BPCL up by 3.26%, UPL up by 3.21%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.92% and Britannia was up by 2.17%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 5.21%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.20%, Adani Ports down by 2.01%, Infosys down by 1.68% and ITC was down by 1.48% were the top losers.

All Asian markets are trading higher, Nikkei 225 surged 313.88 points or 1.36% to 23,398.47, Hang Seng increased 133.66 points or 0.50% to 26,809.64, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 25.58 points or 0.22% to 11,581.50, Straits Times advanced 24.58 points or 0.78% to 3,181.15, Shanghai Composite gained 44.66 points or 1.60% to 2,827.95, KOSPI soared 12.95 points or 0.60% to 2,170.85 and Jakarta Composite was up by 25.82 points or 0.44% to 5,948.16.