Equity markets maintain upward momentum

Indian equity markets maintained their upward momentum in late afternoon session, following gains in Bankex, Consumer Discretionary and Capital Goods stocks. Traders remained optimistic with British drug maker AstraZeneca Plc stating that the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford produced an immune response in both elderly and young people and adverse reactions were lower among the elderly. Some support also came after rating agency CRISIL has said that over 40% of banking system credit and 75% of borrowers are likely to benefit from interest-on-interest concession granted by the federal government. The move is expected to cost the exchequer Rs 7500 crore. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red as record daily jumps in coronavirus infections in the United States, Russia and France coupled with fading hopes for U.S. stimulus added to a gloomy economic outlook. European markets were trading lower as weakness in miners and automakers offset upbeat results from UK blue-chip companies HSBC and BP.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40370.85, up by 225.35 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 39978.39 and 40418.85. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.32%, while Small cap index was up by 0.47%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.92%, Consumer Discretionary up by 1.60%, Capital Goods up by 1.59%, Auto up by 1.40% and Power was up by 1.39%, while IT down by 1.57%, TECK down by 1.38%, Telecom down by 0.86%, Metal down by 0.58% and Energy was down by 0.52% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 11.21%, Nestle up by 5.90%, Asian Paints up by 5.64%, Bajaj Finance up by 4.22% and Ultratech Cement up by 2.92%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.16%, TCS down by 1.80%, ONGC down by 1.69%, Sun Pharma down by 1.10% and HDFC down by 1.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, few days after the government announcement, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked all lending institutions, including non-banking financial companies, to implement the waiver of interest on interest for loans up to Rs 2 crore for the six months moratorium period beginning March 1, 2020.

On October 23, the government had announced the scheme for grant of ex-gratia payment of difference between compound interest and simple interest for six months to borrowers in specified loan accounts.

The scheme mandates ex-gratia payment to certain categories of borrowers by way of crediting the difference between simple interest and compound interest for the period between March 1, 2020 to August 31, 2020 by respective lending institutions. The government had asked the lending institutions to complete the exercise of crediting the amount in the accounts of borrowers by November 5.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11851.65, up by 83.90 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 11723.00 and 11861.75. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 11.47%, Shree Cement up by 6.79%, Nestle up by 6.03%, Asian Paints up by 5.58% and Bajaj Finance up by 4.41%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.09%, Infosys down by 2.07%, TCS down by 1.92%, ONGC down by 1.76% and GAIL India down by 1.64% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 131.59 points or 0.53% to 24,787.19, Taiwan Weighted dropped 34.02 points or 0.26% to 12,875.01, Jakarta Composite lost 15.82 points or 0.31% to 5,128.23, KOSPI fell 13.07 points or 0.56% to 2,330.84, Straits Times trembled 9.36 points or 0.37% to 2,513.95 and Nikkei 225 was down by 8.54 points or 0.04% to 23,485.80. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 3.20 points or 0.1% to 3,254.32.

European markets were trading lower; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 13.61 points or 0.23% to 5,778.40, France’s CAC decreased 42.84 points or 0.89% to 4,773.28 and Germany’s DAX was down by 40.55 points or 0.33% to 12,136.63.