Sensex, Nifty trade higher in early deals taking lead from Asian peers

Indian equity benchmarks made optimistic start on Friday tracking gains in Asian peers. Markets are trading higher with notable gains of around half a percent each in early deals. Except Realty, buying in all the sector indices led by Consumer Durables, Consumer discretionary and Telecom supported the bourses. Hopes of economic revival boosted sentiments in the domestic indices. NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar’s statement that the Indian economy might end up with a lower contraction in the current fiscal than projected by various organisations and also stressed that the next stimulus should focus on short-gestation infrastructure projects. Meanwhile, India on Thursday recorded 54,482 cases, taking its tally to 7,759,640. Death toll rose to 117,336.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading higher after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated that while Democrats and the White House continued to make progress toward an agreement on a new stimulus bill, it will ‘take a while to write the bill’. Back home, banking stocks were in focus as bank credit grew 5.66% year-on-year to Rs 103.44 lakh crore, while deposits increased 10.55% to Rs 143.02 lakh crore in the fortnight ended October 9. In scrip specific developments, ONGC gained as it won seven of 11 oil and gas exploration blocks offered for bidding in the latest licensing round.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40733.75, up by 175.26 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 40692.32 and 40811.12. There were 23 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.48%, while Small cap index was up by 0.59%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 2.31%, Consumer discretionary up by 0.93%, Telecom up by 0.90%, Auto up by 0.90%, Energy up by 0.71%, while Realty down by 0.38% was the sole losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 1.61%, Tata Steel up by 1.60%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.40%, Power Grid up by 1.33% and Reliance Industries up by 0.80%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 0.38%, HCL Technologies down by 0.21%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.17%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.15% and Axis Bank down by 0.11% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has said that if India has to grow, then it will have to look at global markets and become a key exporting nation. He also said no country has become rich without penetrating the US market and India must get into it in a big way. He said ‘we must understand globalisation has lifted vast segments of the population in the last few decades.

Kant further said that India has carried out some radical reforms recently in coal, agriculture, MSME and mining sectors. He pointed out that every crisis is an opportunity to use technology to leapfrog and India has demonstrated its strength. He said ‘we have used technology in a very big way to make India efficient’.

Besides, after contracting for six straight months, India’s merchandise exports grew by 5.99 percent to $27.58 billion in September 2020 as compared to same period of last year, on account of growth in shipments of drugs and pharmaceuticals and readymade garments.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11961.60, up by 65.15 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 11939.15 and 11974.55. There were 44 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 2.16%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 2.04%, Tata Motors up by 1.65%, Cipla up by 1.61% and IOC up by 1.61%. On the flip side, Shree Cement down by 0.64%, JSW Steel down by 0.48%, GAIL India down by 0.28%, Infosys down by 0.13% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.09% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 83.10 points or 0.35% to 23,557.37, Straits Times rose 4.31 points or 0.17% to 2,532.72, Hang Seng jumped 152.72 points or 0.62% to 24,938.85, KOSPI gained 9.30 points or 0.39% to 2,364.35, Jakarta Composite increased 15.95 points or 0.31% to 5,107.77 and Shanghai Composite was up by 4.37 points or 0.13% to 3,316.87, while Taiwan Weighted lost 10.22 points or 0.08% to 12,906.81.