Local bourses remain in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in green terrain in morning deals, driven by gains in Consumer Durables and Auto stocks amid positive cues from global markets. Traders took some support with Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar expressed confidence that money and resources will be in place for a viable and effective vaccination system to fight COVID-19, even as he said it is quite premature to talk about the cost for getting the vaccination. He also expressed hope that the corporate world will also rise up to the occasion and make the vaccination part of their CSR activity. Market participants also took a note of Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant’s statement 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. However, gains remain capped as some cautiousness came with a private report stated that with no signs of reprieve from the pandemic in near future and economy yet to show major indications of a revival, India's consumer confidence has declined by 0.3 percentage points in October 2020.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, following the positive cues overnight from Wall Street as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated Democrats and the White House continued to make progress toward an agreement on a new stimulus bill. Meanwhile, the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed that the manufacturing sector in Japan continued to contract in October, albeit at a slower pace, with a manufacturing PMI score of 48.0. That's up 47.7 in September, although it remains beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.  Back home, on the sectoral front, stocks related to real estate sector remained in focus with a survey stating that the sentiment in the real estate industry remained pessimistic during July-September due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the outlook for the next six months has turned optimistic with signs of revival in demand.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40704.26, up by 145.77 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 40642.17 and 40811.12. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.42%, while Small cap index was up by 0.64%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.65%, Auto up by 1.36%, Consumer Discretionary up by 0.98%, Energy up by 0.97% and Utilities up by 0.82%, while Realty down by 0.78%, IT down by 0.16%, TECK down by 0.13% and FMCG down by 0.04% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 2.70%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.32%, Tata Steel up by 1.96%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.55% and Sun Pharma up by 1.37%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 0.83%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.61%, Infosys down by 0.48% and HCL Technologies down by 0.46% and Axis Bank down by 0.36% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar has said that Indian economy is likely to end up with a lower contraction in current financial year (FY21) than projected by various organisations while suggesting that the next stimulus should focus on infrastructure.

He mentioned ‘I think this third quarter we will see smaller contractions than had been forecast and the fourth quarter could well be a wash if not a small positive. Talking about on the much anticipated stimulus, he said the next stimulus should focus on short gestation infrastructure projects as it has strong multiplier effects and can sustain growth. There is enough productivity enhancing expenditures which can be rolled out in a relatively short span.

The Reserve Bank of India had projected the Indian economy to contract 9.5% in the current fiscal while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank estimated the contraction at 10.3% and 9.6%, respectively.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11945.00, up by 48.55 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 11927.35 and 11974.55. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.77%, Power Grid up by 2.60%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.26%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 2.15% and Tata Steel up by 1.97%. On the flip side, Shree Cement down by 1.37%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.02%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.57%, JSW Steel down by 0.52% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.49% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 85.02 points or 0.36% to 23,559.29, KOSPI rose 5.44 points or 0.23% to 2,360.49, Shanghai Composite gained 4.37 points or 0.13% to 3,316.87, Jakarta Composite soared 10.35 points or 0.2% to 5,102.17, Straits Times advanced 4.22 points or 0.17% to 2,532.63 and Hang Seng increased 162.24 points or 0.65% to 24,948.37.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted dropped 13.00 points or 0.1% to 12,904.03.