Domestic equities continue to trade in green

Domestic equities continued to trade in green in morning session, on the back of buying interest across some blue chip counters. Market-men took support from the Fitch Ratings’ report that India is very likely to come out with another round of fiscal stimulus package, worth about 1 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the coming months. Fitch, which recently revised India's sovereign rating outlook to 'negative' from 'stable', said it has factored in the outgo for additional fiscal stimulus while deciding on the rating action. Some support also came with private report that even though India relies sizeably on Chinese imports, there are 40 sectors where domestic substitutes do exist and switching part of the requirements to local alternatives can reduce the trade deficit with the northern neighbour by $8.5 billion in a single year. Traders overlooked report that Moody's Investors Service has projected that the Indian economy to shrink 3.1% in 2020 and said clashes with China on the border also suggest rising geopolitical risks in the Asian region where countries are particularly vulnerable to changes in geopolitical dynamics.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly higher after oil prices rose and technology firms pushed Wall Street higher, although investors remained worried about fresh coronavirus outbreaks across the globe. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35073.24, up by 161.92 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 34843.69 and 35116.22. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.11%, while Small cap index was up by 0.74%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 2.50%, Utilities up by 1.93%, FMCG up by 1.72%, Capital Goods up by 1.71% and Consumer Durables up by 1.62%, while Energy down by 0.36% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 4.17%, NTPC up by 3.57%, Nestle up by 2.92%, Power Grid up by 2.74% and Titan Company up by 2.66%. On the flip side, TCS down by 0.56%, Reliance Industries down by 0.51%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.19%, HDFC Bank down by 0.12% and ICICI Bank down by 0.11% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman -- Rajiv Kumar has said India will transform into a middle-income country from a lower middle-income economy by 2030. He also said that India will witness a recovery in investment cycle by April 2021 and India will make strong efforts to improve its trade at the global level.

On the coronavirus situation in India, he said it is unfair to compare India's dealing of the COVID-19 pandemic with Western countries as resources and priorities are not the same. He noted that the government is working on saving lives and livelihoods.

Further, He said major programmes are focusing on health and welfare of those who are at the bottom of the pyramid and next (focus is) on the industry and business, reducing liquidity constraint and insolvency especially for MSMEs.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10377.55, up by 66.35 points or 0.64% after trading in a range of 10301.75 and 10378.50. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were UPL up by 4.24%, Indusind Bank up by 4.15%, NTPC up by 3.73%, Nestle up by 2.97% and Power Grid up by 2.88%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 0.57%, TCS down by 0.54%, Reliance Industries down by 0.35%, HDFC down by 0.24% and Tata Motors down by 0.15% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly higher; Hang Seng increased 238.12 points or 0.97% to 24,749.46, Nikkei 225 surged 201.92 points or 0.9% to 22,639.19, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 24.29 points or 0.21% to 11,597.22, KOSPI rose 8.44 points or 0.4% to 2,135.17, Straits Times advanced 5.77 points or 0.22% to 2,635.46 and Shanghai Composite gained 5.03 points or 0.17% to 2,970.30.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lost 11.92 points or 0.24% to 4,906.91.