Key indices keep head above water in afternoon deals

Local equity benchmarks managed to keep their head above water in afternoon deals with both Sensex and Nifty were trading up by 23.86 points and 11.30 points, respectively. Traders took some solace as India and China have agreed on a five-point plan for resolving the prolonged border face-off in eastern Ladakh that included abiding by all existing agreements and protocol on management of the frontier, maintaining peace and tranquility and avoiding any action that could escalate matters. However, upside remain capped as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the impact of COVID-19 pandemic is significant on India's development and the immediate priority is a coordinated policy response. Meanwhile; The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines asking banks to tighten the compliance functions and ensure that the chief compliance officer (CCO) follows best practices in the industry as required by the supervisory expectations. Traders were seen in buying position for realty, IT and consumer durables stocks, while selling was witnessed in utilities, PSU and telecom stocks.

On the global front; Asian markets were trading mostly in green, despite weak cues from US stock market overnight and heightening geo political tensions. Back home; in scrip specific developments, Granules gained on USFDA nod for ADHD treatment drug and Max Healthcare Institute surged after 5.2% equity changes hands on BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38864.18, up by 23.86 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 38738.22 and 38978.52. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.26%, while Small cap index was up by 0.34%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.43%, IT up by 1.05%, Consumer Durables up by 1.00%, TECK up by 0.81% and Energy was up by 0.46%, while Utilities down by 0.55%, PSU down by 0.49%, Telecom down by 0.38%, Oil & Gas down by 0.34% and Metal was down by 0.30% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 1.66%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.55%, Titan Company up by 1.32%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.86% and Reliance Industries was up by 0.84%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.80%, Indusind Bank down by 1.72%, Asian Paints down by 1.59%, HDFC Bank down by 1.04% and ONGC was down by 1.02% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, CARE Ratings in its latest report has said that reflecting the overall stress in the economy, the employment growth rate declined to 3.5 percent in FY20 as compared to 3.8 percent in the previous fiscal year, but the total number of jobs increased to 50.02 lakh from 48.32 lakh. In FY20, 1.70 lakh new jobs were added, while the net addition was 1.76 lakh in FY19. But in FY20, as many as 321 companies reduced their headcounts by 1.13 lakh compared to 272 companies doing so by 1.18 lakh in the previous year.

According to the report, in FY20, top 10 companies added 1.41 lakh to their headcounts of which four each were in IT and banks and two in the NBFC space. Nine companies had headcounts of above 1 lakh each, of which four were in the IT sector, two in banking, and one each in auto, NBFC and miscellaneous sectors. Seven companies had headcount of each between 50,000 and 1 lakh and 17 had between 25,000 and 50,000, while 33 companies with headcount of each above 25,000 accounted for 57 percent of total employment.

The report further said in terms of sectors, four industries accounted for around 61 percent of jobs, led by IT (23 percent), banking (22 percent), auto (9 percent) and finance (7 percent). Textiles, which at one time was a leading employer, was fifth in the hierarchy with share of 2.4 percent. Ten industries saw a decline in headcounts. In terms of growth in employment or headcount, 11 of the 33 industries witnessed growth of above the sample average of 3.5 per cent. This included electricals, finance, banking, IT, FMCG, consumer durables, trading, chemicals, iron & steel, retail and insurance.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11460.55, up by 11.30 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 11423.90 and 11493.50. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Wipro up by 3.18%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.28%, TCS up by 1.79%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.63% and Tata Motors was up by 1.54%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.76%, Power Grid down by 1.60%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 1.44%, Asian Paints down by 1.24% and ONGC was down by 1.15% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 141.11 points or 0.58% to 24,454.65, Jakarta Composite soared 107.38 points or 2.2% to 4,998.84, Shanghai Composite gained 25.54 points or 0.79% to 3,260.36, Nikkei 225 surged 171.02 points or 0.74% to 23,406.49 and KOSPI was up by 0.21 points or 0.01% to 2,396.69.

On the other hand; Straits Times trembled 7.59 points or 0.3% to 2,484.50 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 15.80 points or 0.12% to 12,675.95.