Markets trade in fine-fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made optimistic start on Friday tracking firm global cues. Markets are trading in fine-fettle in early deals supported by buying in all the sector indices except telecom. Gains in the markets were led by Power Grid, SBI and HDFC Bank. Broader indices outperforming larger peers with gains of over a percent each. sentiments got a boost with a private report that Russia is looking for a partnership with India for producing the Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V. Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is likely to do phase 3 clinical trials in Russia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Philippines. Some support also came in with another private report that India’s rural economy swung to growth in June after eight months of contraction. Traders largely overlooked report that India has recorded over 68,500 coronavirus cases, taking its total past the 2.9-million mark to 2,904,329.  The country's death toll has surged to 53,994.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher following the tech-driven rally overnight on Wall Street and on reports that China and the U.S. have agreed to hold new trade talks in the coming days. Encouraging news on the coronavirus vaccine front also lifted investor sentiment. Pfizer and BioNTech SE said they are on track to seek regulatory review for their coronavirus vaccine candidate as early as October 2020, assuming clinical success.

Back home, housing finance companies stocks were in limelight as rating firm ICRA said housing finance companies (HFCs) may see a muted portfolio growth and would require Rs 3.8-4.5 lakh crore to meet their refinancing obligations in FY21. Meanwhile, NSE has announced its latest semi-annual review of indices according to which SBI Life Insurance and Divi's Laboratories will enter the benchmark index Nifty 50, replacing Bharti Infratel and Zee Entertainment Enterprises.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38524.57, up by 304.18 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 38460.46 and 38579.83. There were 29 stocks advancing against 1 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.23%, while Small cap index was up by 1.24%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 2.02%, Utilities up by 1.90%, PSU up by 1.60%, Metal up by 1.35%, Realty up by 1.23%, while Telecom down by 0.32% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 3.06%, SBI up by 2.88%, HDFC Bank up by 1.79%, Tata Steel up by 1.50% and Sun Pharma up by 1.33%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 0.44% was the sole loser.

Meanwhile, Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers D V Sadananda Gowda has said that the government has taken several measures to bring down India’s dependency on import of medical devices and for the development of domestic capacity in the sector. He pointed out that the country is heavily dependent on imports in case of finished medical devices as well as for critical medical device components. He said the size of the Indian medical device industry is about Rs 57,000 crore, and import dependence is to the tune of Rs 41,400 crore, that means a high dependency of more than 85 percent and this needs to be corrected.

Gowda said the medical devices sector has a crucial role to play in improving accessibility and affordability of healthcare especially with respect to availability of precision devices for screening and diagnosis, advanced surgical equipment needed for treatment, and devices for monitoring of health indicators, among others. To strengthen the country's drug security, he said the government has launched schemes for development of three Bulk Drug Parks and four Medical Device Parks across the country. Apart from increasing central assistance for development of common infrastructure facilities in the parks, he said the government will also extend production-linked incentive (PLI) to manufacturers of bulk drugs and medical devices in these parks. He added that these schemes will make domestic companies as competitive as their peers in foreign countries, and provide a level-playing field to domestic companies.

The Minister further said within a short period of 23 years, due to right policies of the government, the pharma sector will become Atmanirbhar (self-sufficient), not only in sense of meeting domestic requirements but also for fulfilling global demand of low-cost, high-quality medicines and medical devices. He also said ‘it is our vision to enable Indian medical devices industry to not just be self-sufficient but to also play a leading role in the global market.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11413.00, up by 100.80 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 11386.30 and 11418.50. There were 49 stocks advancing against 1 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid up by 3.23%, SBI up by 3.21%, HDFC Bank up by 1.97%, UPL up by 1.83% and Tata Steel up by 1.75%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 0.53% was the sole loser.

Asian markets were trading in green; Nikkei 225 rose 96.86 points or 0.42% to 22,977.48, Straits Times surged 16.62 points or 0.66% to 2,544.54, Hang Seng jumped 309.56 points or 1.25% to 25,100.95, Taiwan Weighted soared 254.70 points or 2.06% to 12,617.34, KOSPI gained 44.59 points or 1.96% to 2,318.81 and Shanghai Composite was up by 26.19points or 0.78% to 3,390.09.