Markets trade in fine-fettle in early deals amid hopes for coronavirus vaccine

Indian equity benchmarks made firm start and extended their gains for a fifth straight session on Tuesday taking led from strong global cues. Markets are trading in fine-fettle with gains of over a percent each in early deals amid hopes for a coronavirus vaccine. Barring telecom, all the sector indices were trading in green on BSE. Sentiments got a boost with the preliminary data from early stages of human trials showing that the COVID-19 vaccine candidate being developed by the Oxford University and AstraZeneca is safe, well-tolerated, and immunogenic (capable of inducing an immune response). Some support came in with a labour ministry’s statement that retail inflation for farm and rural workers in June eased to 7.16 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively, as compared to May this year. Traders took note that Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal called upon Indian investors to play a greater role in providing funds to domestic start-ups with a view to promote the growth of budding entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, with over 36,000 new cases being reported on July 20, the total number of coronavirus cases in India has reached 1,154,917, and the country's Covid-19 death toll has reached 28,099.

On the global front, all the Asian markets are trading higher tracking the overnight gains on Wall Street as positive results from trials of experimental COVID-19 vaccines helped ease worries about the spike in coronavirus cases worldwide. Expectations for stimulus packages in the US and Europe also boosted investors’ sentiment. Pfizer and BioNTech SE announced early positive data on their joint coronavirus vaccine candidate from a German phase 1/2 covid-19 vaccine study.

Back home, the telecom stocks were trading lower after the Supreme Court said there is no scope for any re-assessment of AGR dues. In scrip specific development, Britannia Industries was modestly higher. The company plans to invest up to Rs 1,000 crore to scale up capacity and launch new products. Axis Bank and Bajaj Finance rose ahead of their quarterly results.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 37856.82, up by 437.83 points or 1.17% after trading in a range of 37793.49 and 37923.38. 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 0.79%, while Small cap index was up by 0.86%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.84%, Auto up by 1.71%, Energy up by 1.64%, Realty up by 1.53%, Basic Materials up by 1.20%, while Telecom down by 0.46% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.91%, ICICI Bank up by 2.80%, Axis Bank up by 1.98%, Reliance Industries up by 1.91% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.90%. On the flip side, ITC down by 0.29%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.15% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.02% were the few losers.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that the free trade agreements (FTAs) that India entered into over the years have not been able to largely serve the country's economy well in terms of building its capacities, though all such pacts are not the same. He said there are ways of engaging the world which do not necessarily have to be ‘FTA-centric’. He, however, added that all the FTAs are not the same. He also warned of a more protectionist global economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Talking about non-alignment and the current geo-politics, the external affairs minister said it was a term of a particular era and particular geopolitical landscape. Noting that India maintains a strong streak of independence in its foreign policy, he said people turn to the country as part of solution, as it has been a key player in dealing with all major global issues and challenges like maritime security, climate change and terrorism. He said ‘if we are to grow by leveraging the international situation, then you have to exploit the opportunities out there. Either you are in the game or you are not in the game.... I would say that the era of great caution and very much greater dependence on multilateralism, that era is to a certain extent behind us.’

He further said ‘we have to step out more, we have to be more confident, we have to articulate our interests better, we need to take risks because without taking risks like in business or in banking, you cannot get ahead. Those are the choices we have to make and I think there is no getting away from it.’ He noted that the relations at times are impacted by the interplay of politics and sharp positioning. Therefore, he said ‘we need to create those structural linkages between us and our neighbours so that they care of political cycles and any volatility their politics may produce.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11148.00, up by 125.80 points or 1.14% after trading in a range of 11121.80 and 11164.45. There were 44 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 3.37%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.99%, ICICI Bank up by 2.75%, Tata Motors up by 2.62% and Wipro up by 2.25%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 1.07%, Bharti Infratel down by 0.42%, ITC down by 0.26%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.17% and GAIL India down by 0.05% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading in green; Nikkei 225 surged 172.56 points or 0.76% to 22,890.04, Straits Times rose 14.88 points or 0.57% to 2,631.18, Hang Seng jumped 471.03 points or 1.88% to 25,529.02, Taiwan Weighted spurt 244.20 points or 2.01% to 12,418.74, KOSPI advanced 33.09 points or 1.51% to 2,231.29, Jakarta Composite gained 41.02 points or 0.81% to 5,092.13 and Shanghai Composite was up by 2.41 points or 0.07% to 3,316.56.