Firm trade persists over Dalal Street

Firm trade continued over the Dalal Street in late morning deals, with both Sensex and Nifty holding their strong gains to trade higher. Positive cues from other Asian markets helped key indices to maintain their gaining momentum. Domestic sentiments remained positive, as the Finance Ministry said the month of September has exhibited credible signs of economic growth towards normalcy and the government is not averse to taking any further measures to ameliorate the suffering of people. It said during the last six months of COVID-19 crisis while pushing the fiscal stimulus and packages to boost recovery process of the economy it has taken every possible measure to address the concerns of all the stakeholders and the citizens and has progressively extended help on both the demand and supply side to bring the economy back on track.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, after the manufacturing sector in Taiwan continued to expand in September, and at a faster pace, the latest survey from IHS Markit showed on Monday with a PMI score of 55.2. That's up from 52.2 in August, and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. Individually, output rose at a sharper pace and there was a substantial increase in new work. Employment expanded at the quickest rate in nearly two and a half years.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39075.72, up by 378.67 points or 0.98% after trading in a range of 38923.19 and 39263.85. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.01%, while Small cap index was up by 0.36%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 3.31%, TECK up by 2.81%, Metal up by 1.66%, Bankex up by 1.36% and Realty up by 1.01%, while Utilities down by 0.56%, Auto down by 0.54%, PSU down by 0.32%, Consumer Discretionary down by 0.24% and Oil & Gas down by 0.20% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 5.52%, Tata Steel up by 4.45%, Infosys up by 2.29%, ICICI Bank up by 2.13% and HCL Tech up by 1.83%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.82%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.66%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.30%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.14% and NTPC down by 1.00% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) in its latest data report has showed that regional rural banks (RRBs) as a group reported net loss of Rs 2,206 crore in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020 (FY20), as against Rs 652 crore net loss in FY19. As per the data, during FY 2019-20, 26 RRBs earned profit of Rs 2,203 crore, while 19 incurred losses of Rs 4,409 crore. The data on RRBs is based on the data uploaded by the RRBs in the Ensure portal.

As on March 31, 2020, there were 45 RRBs functioning in 685 districts of 26 states and three union territories (UTs). These RRBs were sponsored by 15 commercial banks and operating through a network of 21,850 branches. Gross non-performing assets as a percentage of gross loans outstanding of RRBs marginally declined to 10.4 per cent as on March 31, 2020, from 10.8 per cent as on March 31, 2019. Share of standard, sub-standard, doubtful and loss assets stood at 89.6 per cent, 3.6 per cent, 6.5 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively, as of end March 2020.

Eighteen of the 45 RRBs (as against 20 out of 53 RRBs as on March 31, 2019) had GNPA above 10 per cent as on March 31, 2020. RRBs, at aggregated level, achieved a growth of 8.6 per cent in their business in FY20 compared to a growth of 9.5 per cent in the previous year. Total business of RRBs stood at Rs 7.77 lakh crore as on March 31, 2020. Deposits and advances of RRBs increased by 10.2 per cent and 9.5 per cent, respectively during FY2019-20. Gross outstanding loans stood at Rs 2.98 lakh crore as against Rs 2.80 lakh crore in FY19.

The data showed priority sector loans constituted 90.6 per cent or Rs 2.70 lakh crore of the gross loans outstanding of RRBs as on March 31, 2020. Share of agriculture and MSME sectors in total loan outstanding stood at 70 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively. As of end March 2020, 17 out of the 45 RRBs had capital to risk weighted assets ratio (CRAR) of less than 9 per cent, of which six RRBs had negative CRAR. System-wide CRAR of RRBs deteriorated to 10.2 per cent as on March 31, 2020 from 11.5 per cent in the previous year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11517.40, up by 100.45 points or 0.88% after trading in a range of 11476.45 and 11578.05. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were TCS up by 5.85%, Wipro up by 5.53%, Tata Steel up by 4.40%, Infosys up by 2.32% and ICICI Bank up by 2.15%. On the flip side, Shree Cement down by 1.97%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.84%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.70%, GAIL India down by 1.64% and Grasim Industries down by 1.37% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; Hang Seng increased 342.92 points or 1.46% to 23,801.97, Jakarta Composite soared 14.03 points or 0.28% to 4,940.76, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 23.39 points or 0.19% to 12,539.00, Straits Times advanced 13.11 points or 0.53% to 2,509.22, KOSPI rose 29.38 points or 1.26% to 2,357.27 and Nikkei 225 surged 276.34 points or 1.2% to 23,306.24.