Firm trade persists on Dalal Street in morning session

Key barometer gauges continued their firm trade in morning session, amid buying in select blue-chip counters. The market witnessed strong gains a day after Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) posted better-than-expected September quarter earnings which influenced the sentiment. The company's profit after tax came at Rs 7,475 crore for the quarter ended September 2020 against Rs 7,008 crore in the previous quarter. Some support also came with Union Minister VK Singh’s statement that highways and infrastructure can spur the country’s economic growth. He said the workforce is back at pre-COVID levels, which is a healthy sign and added that good quality road network leads to ease of doing business, goods transportation and economic growth. Market participants also took a note of Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the European Union is India's largest trading partner block and removing barriers to trade between Europe and India is essential to move forward. There was about $105 billion trade in goods in 2019.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, following the positive cues overnight from Wall Street amid optimism about more U.S. fiscal stimulus. U.S. President Donald Trump said he would support individual stimulus measures after calling off negotiations over a broader relief package. Separately, the Ministry of Finance said that Japan posted a current account surplus of 2,102.8 billion yen in August, down 1.5 percent on year. That exceeded expectations for a surplus of 1,983.7 billion yen following the 1,468.3 billion yen surplus in July. Back home, on the sectoral front, there was some reaction in pharma stocks with report that the initial response to the four schemes launched by the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) for promoting domestic manufacturing of drugs, APIs/ KSMs and medical devices is quite encouraging.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40357.71, up by 478.76 points or 1.20% after trading in a range of 40183.37 and 40393.98. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.90%, while Small cap index was up by 0.57%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 3.71%, TECK up by 3.56%, Telecom up by 2.59%, Bankex up by 1.40% and Metal up by 1.23%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.68%, Energy down by 0.47% and Consumer Durables down by 0.21% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 4.42%, HCL Technologies up by 3.99%, Infosys up by 3.16%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.76% and Bharti Airtel up by 2.44%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.99%, Titan Co down by 1.26%, Asian Paints down by 0.81%, ITC down by 0.68% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.51% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Principal Economic Adviser -- Sanjeev Sanyal has said the government recognises the need for further stimulus at an appropriate time to perk up demand in the economy, hit by COVID-19. He said there is space on the monetary and fiscal side to implement further stimulus.

Talking about the anxiety over low demand in the economy, he said unlike many countries which may have gone from very large upfront demand creation, the approach of India was basically focused on creating a safety net, both for the vulnerable sections of society and business sector given the fiscal constraints.

He said ‘if we tried to re-inflate consumption demand in April, May, June it would have been entirely a waste of resources for the simple reason we ourselves have locked down all the avenues for spending.’ With unlock taking place, he said the manufacturing sector is gradually getting back to the pre-COVID levels and the services sector will gather momentum.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11869.00, up by 130.15 points or 1.11% after trading in a range of 11820.20 and 11880.55. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were TCS up by 4.44%, Wipro up by 4.06%, HCL Technologies up by 3.97%, Infosys up by 3.17% and Tech Mahindra up by 2.82%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 2.36%, ONGC down by 2.06%, Titan Co down by 1.34%, Coal India down by 1.09% and BPCL down by 0.95% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 246.13 points or 1.05% to 23,668.95, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 102.32 points or 0.8% to 12,848.69, Jakarta Composite soared 29.41 points or 0.59% to 5,033.74 and KOSPI rose 8.95 points or 0.37% to 2,395.89.

On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 1.88 points or 0.07% to 2,536.48 and Hang Seng decreased 174.10 points or 0.72% to 24,068.76.