Sensex, Nifty maintain gains in late morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks were maintaining their gains in late morning session, as bulls hold their tight grip over the Dalal Street. Positive cues from other Asian markets helped key indices to remain higher. Domestic sentiments remained optimistic, despite reports that even as brands are betting big on Diwali to light up their sales, a survey has shown below-average spending propensity among urban Indians this festive season with nearly 50 per cent respondents agreeing of being careful about their finances. The survey, conducted by market research firm YouGov, factored into weighted impact of 10 factors including increase in gross household income, increase or decrease in household expenses, their intent to spend this Diwali season. It found only 15 per cent of the respondents with an increase in their gross household incomes.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, even after producer prices in South Korea were up 0.1 percent on month in September, shy of expectations for an increase of 0.8 percent and up from 0.5 percent in August. Individually, prices for agricultural, forestry & marine products rose 4.9 percent on month, while manufacturing products eased 0.1 percent, utilities added 0.3 percent and services fell 0.2 percent. On a yearly basis, producer prices were down 0.4 percent versus expectations for a fall of 0.6 percent after slipping 0.5 percent in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40906.72, up by 362.35 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 40757.27 and 40976.02. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.83%, while Small cap index was up by 0.61%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.97%, Metal up by 2.72%, Bankex up by 1.78%, Utilities up by 1.70% and Power up by 1.68%, while FMCG down by 0.23% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.80%, Power Grid up by 3.12%, Indusind Bank up by 2.78%, NTPC up by 2.61% and ICICI Bank up by 2.57%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 0.68%, TCS down by 0.62%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.55%, HCL Tech down by 0.35% and Nestle down by 0.26% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) latest analysis has showed that aggregate sales of private sector manufacturing companies recorded a sharp contraction of 41.1 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020-21 (Q1FY21), reflecting the impact of the pandemic induced lockdown. It said the data on the performance of the private corporate sector during the first quarter of 2020-21 has been drawn from abridged quarterly financial results of 2,5361 listed non-government non-financial (NGNF) companies.

As per the analysis, aggregate sales of 1,619 manufacturing companies recorded a sharp contraction of 41.1 per cent (Y-o-Y) in Q1:2020-21 following 15.6 per cent decline in Q4:2019-20 reflecting the impact of the pandemic induced lockdown. The contraction was broad-based and varied across industries - only pharmaceutical companies recorded higher sales on both annual and sequential (Q-o-Q) basis. Non-IT services companies also registered a sharp contraction of 41 per cent in their nominal sales. The contraction was across services except for telecommunication companies.

On the other hand, the sales growth of IT sector companies remained in positive terrain but moderated to 3.2 per cent in the April-June quarter of the fiscal on annual basis. It further said lower business operations led to decline in the operating profits of manufacturing and non-IT services companies, while operating profits of IT companies, on the other hand, increased 9.4 per cent during the first quarter. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Securities and Exchange Board of India had extended the deadline for submission of financial results for Q1:2020-21 by listed companies to September 15, 2020.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11997.85, up by 101.05 points or 0.85% after trading in a range of 11951.80 and 12018.65. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.77%, Power Grid up by 3.63%, Hindalco up by 2.79%, Indusind Bank up by 2.79% and ICICI Bank up by 2.70%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.00%, Britannia down by 1.92%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.74%, TCS down by 0.69% and HCL Tech down by 0.39% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 178.39 points or 0.73% to 24,747.93, Nikkei 225 surged 94.69 points or 0.4% to 23,661.73, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 38.86 points or 0.3% to 12,901.23, Straits Times advanced 9.94 points or 0.39% to 2,538.58 and KOSPI rose 8.93 points or 0.38% to 2,367.34. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lost 2.99 points or 0.06% to 5,096.85 and Shanghai Composite declined 11.75 points or 0.35% to 3,316.35.