Benchmarks trade with marginal gains

The Indian benchmarks were trading marginally higher in late afternoon session. Traders found some solace, as Finance Ministry in its Monthly Economic Review for August has said the country is witnessing a V-shaped pattern of recovery as is seen in various high-frequency indicators. The indicators are auto sales, tractor sales, fertiliser sales, railway freight traffic, steel consumption and production, cement production, power consumption, e-way bills, GST revenue collection, daily toll collections on highways, retail financial transactions, manufacturing PMI, performance of core industries, capital inflows and exports. Some support also came with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal stating that the country’s exports as well as imports are showing positive trends as the outbound shipments are approaching the last year's levels, after making a sharp dip in April this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red as investors grappled with sky-high valuations at a time when the global economy is in a coronavirus-induced recession while oil prices dropped sharply. However, European markets were trading higher, diverging from the U.S. after a rough week in markets.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38404.99, up by 47.81 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 38060.74 and 38461.96. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.66%, while Small cap index was down by 0.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.69%, TECK up by 0.62%, FMCG up by 0.57%, Metal up by 0.25% and Consumer Durables was up by 0.16%, while Utilities down by 0.90%, Realty down by 0.81%, Oil & Gas down by 0.66%, Energy down by 0.52%, and Auto was down by 0.46% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 2.24%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.85%, HDFC up by 1.58%, TCS up by 1.56% and HCL up by 1.28%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.73%, NTPC down by 2.37%, ONGC down by 1.73%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.53% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.22% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with the ease of doing business ranking of states and UTs for next year to be released by March 2021, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has started the exercise for the ranking of states and Union Territories in terms of ease of doing business.

DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra said that they have started the exercise already and they have communicated the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) for next year with the states/UTs, which they have to implement.

Last year, the department had identified 181 reform points and for 2021, it has shared 301 such points with the states and UTs. The ranking is based on the implementation of BRAP and feedback received. It started in 2015.

The action plan cover 12 business regulatory areas such as access to information, single window system, labour, and environment. So far, rankings have been released for 2015, 2016, 2017-18 and 2019. The exercise is aimed at promoting competition among states with a view to improving the business climate to attract domestic as well as foreign investments.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11343.75, up by 9.90 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 11251.70 and 11373.30. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 4.77%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 2.71%, Asian Paints up by 2.28%, Tata Motors up by 1.83% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.75%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.82%, UPL down by 2.66%, NTPC down by 2.32%, GAIL India down by 2.19% and ONGC down by 1.86% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 115.48 points or 0.5% to 23,089.95, Hang Seng decreased 105.80 points or 0.43% to 24,589.65, Shanghai Composite declined 62.78 points or 1.87% to 3,292.59, Taiwan Weighted dropped 36.55 points or 0.29% to 12,601.40 and Jakarta Composite was down by 9.65 points or 0.18% to 5,230.20. On the flip side, Straits Times advanced 2.87 points or 0.11% to 2,512.51 and KOSPI was up by 15.97 points or 0.67% to 2,384.22.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 69.94 points or 1.21% to 5,869.02, France’s CAC increased 49.90 points or 1.01% to 5,014.97 and Germany’s DAX was up by 146.86 points or 1.14% to 12,989.52.