Markets trade firm in early deals; Nifty above 11,300 mark

Indian equity benchmarks made gap-up opening on Tuesday, after sharp sell-off in the previous session, on account of buying in frontline bluechip counters and tracking gains in global peers. Now, markets are trading firm in early deals, with Sensex and Nifty garnering gains of over a percent each. Support also came with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the direct tax dispute resolution scheme announced in Budget will be of great help to people as they will be able to save time and money spent in fighting cases. Investors overlooked report that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) lowered India’s GDP growth forecast to 5.1%, from its earlier projection of 6.2%, for FY21 on concerns over the impact of deadly coronavirus on the domestic as well as the global economy. Meanwhile, the National Statistical Office’s (NSO) data showed that as the economy grapples with a prolonged slowdown, close to Rs 10.52 lakh crore of the corporate debt is at the risk of default over the next three years.

Global cues remained supportive, with  Most of Asian markets trading in green following the overnight rebound on Wall Street amid optimism that global central banks will take action to offset the impact of the coronavirus on global economic growth. Investors are also looking ahead to a teleconference call of the G-7 group of financial ministers and central bankers later today for coordinated policy action in response to the coronavirus. The global death toll from the virus has now risen to more than 3,000. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan said that the monetary base in Japan was up 3.6 percent on year in February, coming in at 510.631 trillion yen. That follows the 2.9 percent increase in January.

Back home, SBI Cards and Payment Services initial public offering (IPO) saw a positive response from investors on the first day of bidding and was subscribed 39 per cent at the end of the day. The second-largest card issuer in the country received bids for 3,94,45,830 shares against the total offering of 10 crore shares under various categories. In stock specific developments, Indraprastha Gas rallied on reports that it will soon start manufacturing household gas meters to reduce dependence on imports from China. Sun Pharma jumped after it reported a shortage of its generic version of hypertension drug pindolol in the US.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38672.32, up by 528.30 points or 1.39% after trading in a range of 38373.25 and 38715.86. There were 29 stocks advancing against 1 stock declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.80%, while Small cap index was up by 1.68%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.56%, Healthcare up by 2.74%, Realty up by 2.45%, Basic Materials up by 2.36% and Energy up by 2.35%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectroal front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma Industries up by 5.26%, Tata Steel up by 3.67%, Reliance Industries up by 2.52%, ICICI Bank up by 2.50% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.46%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 2.96% was the sole loser.

Meanwhile, amid concerns of impact of deadly coronavirus on the domestic as well as the global economy, The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has slashed its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast for India to 5.1% from the earlier projection of 6.2% for fiscal year 2020-21 (FY21). The Organisation said the adverse impact on confidence, financial markets, travel sector and disruption to supply chains contributes to the downward revisions in all G20 economies in 2020, particularly ones strongly interconnected to China. India is a member of G20, a grouping of developed and developing economies.

As per the latest OECD Interim Economic Outlook Forecasts, the country’s real GDP growth is expected at 5.1% during the fiscal year starting April 1, 2020 and improve to 5.6% in the following year. The latest projection for 2020-21 is 1.1 percentage point lower than the November 2019 forecast. It has projected the growth at 4.9% for the financial year ending March 2020.

The report said coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has already brought considerable human suffering and major economic disruption. Output contractions in China are being felt around the world, reflecting the key and rising role China has in global supply chains, travel and commodity markets. Subsequent outbreaks in other economies are having similar effects, albeit on a smaller scale.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11310.70, up by 177.95 points or 1.60% after trading in a range of 11215.95 and 11317.10. There were 48 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 5.86%, Zee Entertainment up by 5.84%, JSW Steel up by 4.81%, Sun Pharma up by 4.67% and Eicher Motors up by 4.46%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 2.78% and Bharti Infratel down by 0.09% were the only losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite jumped 40.44 points or 1.36% to 3,011.37, Hang Seng rose 204.25 points or 0.78% to 26,495.93, Jakarta Composite increased 181.32 points or 3.38% to 5,542.57, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 210.09 points or 1.88% to 11,380.55, KOSPI gained 25.96 points or 1.30% to 2,028.47 and Straits Times advanced 30.70 points or 1.02% to 3,038.42. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 slipped 194.21 points or 0.91% to 21,149.87.