Firm trade prevails in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in afternoon session, on sustained buying by participants, driven by positive global cues. Sentiments on the street remained in optimistic mood with Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur’s statement that the government is aiming to make India among the top three economies of the world by 2025. He noted that the country has overtaken France and the UK to become the world’s fifth-largest economy. He added that various financial institutions, including IMF and RBI, have estimated that India will once again attain fast growth. The domestic sentiment was also buoyed with data indicating that the output of eight core sectors of the economy managed to rise for a second straight month in January, growing by 2.2% as key sectors like refinery products and electricity continued to see slow growth. Investors overlooked a private survey showed India's factory activity growth slowed in February from the previous month's eight-year high due to a modest weakening in demand and output, although overall conditions remained firm. The Nikkei Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by IHS Markit, fell to 54.5 last month from January's 55.3.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly higher, as investors placed their hopes on a coordinated global monetary policy response to weather the damaging economic impact of the coronavirus epidemic. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39004.63, up by 707.34 points or 1.85% after trading in a range of 38683.67 and 39083.17. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.51%, while Small cap index was up by 1.66%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 3.31%, TECK up by 3.05%, Metal up by 2.57%, FMCG up by 2.18% and Basic Materials up by 1.90%, while there were no losers on sectoral indices.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 4.51%, HCL Tech up by 4.48%, ICICI Bank up by 4.45%, Nestle up by 3.07% and TCS up by 2.65%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 3.61%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.73% and Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.64% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, asserting that the world has confidence in India and its economy, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur has said that the government is aiming to make India among the top three economies of the world by 2025. He noted that the country has overtaken France and the UK to become the world’s fifth-largest economy. He added that various financial institutions, including IMF and RBI, have estimated that India will once again attain fast growth.

The minister has stated that IMF and RBI have said India is bound to grow at the rate of 6-6.5 percent in financial year 2020-21, that clearly shows that the world has confidence in India and Indian economy and the government is taking all the steps in that direction. He said ‘if you look at FDI inflows during the last five years into the country, they far exceed the FDI during the 10 years of UPA rule. He added that the country's foreign exchange reserves swelled by $3.091 billion to a lifetime high of $476.092 billion in, mainly due to a rise in foreign currency assets.

Thakur said ‘the fiscal deficit, which used to be at 5.2 percent during the UPA regime, has come down to 3.3 percent, though this year it will be 3.8 percent and next year we will bring it down to 3.5 percent.’ He also said the government has shown what fiscal discipline is Inflation, which used to be 12 percent, came down to 4 percent. He added that all macroeconomic indicators point that India is going ahead in the right direction.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11383.65, up by 181.90 points or 1.62% after trading in a range of 11308.30 and 11433.00. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 4.65%, Infosys up by 4.36%, HCL Tech up by 4.24%, ICICI Bank up by 4.06% and JSW Steel up by 3.52%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 3.62%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.23%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.92% and GAIL India was down by 0.62% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly higher; Nikkei 225 surged 201.12 points or 0.95% to 21,344.08, Hang Seng increased 190.30 points or 0.73% to 26,320.23, Shanghai Composite gained 98.57 points or 3.42% to 2,978.87, KOSPI rose 15.50 points or 0.78% to 2,002.51 and Straits Times was up by 8.87 points or 0.29% to 3,019.95.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lost 86.00 points or 1.58% to 5,366.70 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 121.71 points or 1.08% to 11,170.46.