Markets maintain upward momentum in morning session

Indian equity markets maintained their upward momentum in the morning session, following gains in IT, TECK and Metal stocks amid positive global sentiments. After making optimistic start, markets continued to trade with healthy gains. Buoyant Mid-caps and Small-caps also elevated over 1% gains on their respective front line stocks. Sentiments remained upbeat with report that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pumped in a net amount of Rs 1,820 crore into equities and Rs 4,734 crore into the debt segment between February 3 to 28. This took the total net investment to Rs 6,554 crore during the period under review. Local investors also cheered as government collected Rs 1.05 lakh crore as GST revenue in February, up 8 per cent over the same month last year. Adding some comfort, Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) data showed that India's foreign exchange reserves inched up by $29 million to a fresh lifetime high of $476.122 billion in the week to February 21, aided by an increase in the value of gold holdings. Traders ignored the RBI data showing that bank credit growth declined to 8.5% in January from 13.5% in the year-ago period led by a sharp slowdown in loans to the services sector.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as investors placed their hopes on a coordinated global monetary policy response to weather the damaging economic impact of the coronavirus epidemic. Back on domestic turf, on the sectoral front, MSME sector remained in limelight, as Union minister Nitin Gadkari said that the government was all set to give a major boost to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38808.02, up by 510.73 points or 1.33% after trading in a range of 38683.67 and 39083.17. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.12%, while Small cap index was up by 1.31%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.27%, TECK up by 2.07%, Metal up by 1.92%, Realty up by 1.65%, Energy up by 1.65%, while there were no losers on the BSE in sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 4.14%, HCL Tech up by 3.73%, Infosys up by 2.76%, Nestle up by 2.36% and TCS up by 2.16%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 2.78%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.12%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.12% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.11% were the few losers.

Meanwhile, the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in its latest data has said that India's fiscal deficit touched 128.5 percent of current financial year (FY20) budget target at January-end. The deficit during the same period of FY19 was 121.5 percent. As per the CGA data on monthly accounts, revenue receipts during April-January were at Rs 12.5 lakh crore or 67.6 percent of the RE for 2019-20. This compares with 68.3 percent of the RE in the previous fiscal.

Total receipts were at 66.4 percent of RE as against 67.5 percent in the year-ago period. The CGA further said that total expenditure at January-end was Rs 22.68 lakh crore or 84.1 percent of RE, higher than 81.5 percent in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

In actual terms, the fiscal deficit or gap between the expenditure and revenue stood at Rs 9,85,472 crore. The government had targeted to restrict the fiscal deficit at Rs 7,66,846 crore during the year ending March 31, 2020. While presenting the Union Budget to Parliament earlier this month, Finance Minister Nirmalal Sitharaman had raised fiscal deficit target to 3.8 percent of the GDP from 3.3 percent pegged earlier for 2019-20 due to revenue shortage.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11342.15, up by 140.40 points or 1.25% after trading in a range of 11308.30 and 11433.00. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 3.88%, HCL Tech up by 3.68%, Zee Entertainment up by 3.22%, Coal India up by 3.00% and Infosys up by 2.71%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 2.72%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.21%, GAIL India down by 1.01%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.24% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.16% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green, Nikkei 225 surged 228.70 points or 1.08% to 21,371.66, Hang Seng increased 218.76 points or 0.84% to 26,348.69, Shanghai Composite gained 84.81 points or 2.94% to 2,965.11, KOSPI rose 21.54 points or 1.08% to 2,008.55 and Straits Times advanced 11.92 points or 0.4% to 3,023.00. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lost 55.39 points or 1.02% to 5,397.31 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 106.42 points or 0.94% to 11,185.75.