Sensex, Nifty maintain gaining momentum

Firm trade continued over the Dalal Street in late morning deals, with both Sensex and Nifty maintaining their gaining momentum. Positive cues from other Asian markets were helping key indices to remain higher in late morning session. Domestic sentiments were positive, even after domestic rating agency India Ratings and Research revised the country's FY21 GDP growth forecast to (-) 11.8 per cent from (-) 5.3 per cent earlier. The agency, however, expects India’s gross domestic product (GDP) to rebound and grow at 9.9 per cent year-on-year in FY22 mainly due to the weak base of FY21.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after Taiwan's trade surplus increased in August as both exports and imports rose strongly. The figures from the Ministry of Finance showed that the trade surplus increased to $6.466 billion in August from $6.012 billion last year. In July, the trade surplus was $5.369 billion. Exports rose 8.3 percent year-on-year in August, following a 0.4 percent rise in July.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38670.12, up by 252.89 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 38332.20 and 38719.64. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.10%, while Small cap index was up by 0.28%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.07%, TECK up by 1.33%, Energy up by 1.25%, Oil & Gas up by 0.90% and Consumer Durables up by 0.36%, while Telecom down by 1.98%, Metal down by 0.58%, Utilities down by 0.38%, Realty down by 0.25% and Capital Goods down by 0.23% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 2.36%, HCL Tech up by 2.19%, TCS up by 1.76%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.63% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.52%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.28%, Nestle down by 1.08%, ONGC down by 0.98%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.86% and NTPC down by 0.76% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, rating agency ICRA in its latest report has said that India’s air passenger traffic logged around 25% month-on-month (M-o-M) growth at 26 lakh passengers in August with airlines scaling up capacity by 27% over July. However, it said passenger traffic on year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis plunged by 77% in August.

Overall, passenger traffic grew by 19% till August 31, with carriers flying over 70 lakh passengers during the period, after the resumption of services in a graded manner on domestic routes from May 25 following a two-month hiatus. It added that the capacity deployment at around 33% Y-o-Y was rather a slow uptick despite recommencement of operations over three months ago.

As per the report, the average number of passengers per flight during August was 98 against the average of 133 passengers per flight in August last year, and added that it is expected that the domestic aviation industry operated at a passenger load factor (PLF) of around 63% in the previous month as against 85.1% in August 2019, that too on very low capacity.

The agency said the PLF for August 2020 has sequentially improved from around 55%% in July this year despite the increase in capacity deployment by around 19%. While the scheduled international operations are yet to start, the Civil Aviation Ministry has permitted international operations under the Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) and Air Transport Bubbles (ATB).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11417.10, up by 62.05 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 11328.75 and 11432.40. There were 24 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 3.17%, Infosys up by 2.37%, HCL Tech up by 2.23%, Wipro up by 2.19% and TCS up by 1.80%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 5.69%, Grasim Industries down by 1.93%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.54%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.38% and Nestle down by 1.22% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 114.62 points or 0.5% to 23,204.57, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 36.39 points or 0.29% to 12,637.79, KOSPI rose 13.87 points or 0.58% to 2,398.09, Jakarta Composite soared 8.34 points or 0.16% to 5,238.54 and Straits Times advanced 7.45 points or 0.3% to 2,518.66. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 11.30 points or 0.34% to 3,281.29 and Hang Seng decreased 139.41 points or 0.57% to 24,450.24.