Markets trade in fine-fettle in early deals; Nifty surpasses 12,400 mark

Indian equity benchmarks made gap-up opening on Monday tracking Asian peers. Markets are trading in fine-fettle with gains of around one and half a percent each in early deals, supported by buying in all the sector indices led by Bankex, Telecom and Oil & Gas counters. Sensex and Nifty were trading above their physiological levels of 42,400 and 12,400 marks, respectively. Sentiments got a boost with PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s President Sanjay Aggarwal’s statement that the economy is going to attain its fastest growth trajectory from the next financial year 2021-22 onwards. He said ‘Percolation of more and more economic reforms at the ground level with effective implementation would be crucial to attain the potential trajectory of $5 trillion in the next 6 financial years by FY 2026-27 (GDP at current prices; considering the exchange rate between 74-75).’ Some support also came in with Dinesh Khara, Chairman, State Bank of India’s statement that the Indian economy is expected to be on normal course by early next fiscal even while the investment demand from corporate might take some time to pick up. Meanwhile, India has reported 46,661 fresh Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The total caseload now stands at 8,553,864. The country's death toll has mounted to 126,653.

Strong global cues also supported the markets, with most of the Asian markets were trading notably higher after Democratic candidate Joe Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump and removed uncertainty regarding the US presidential race from the markets. A divided government with a Joe Biden presidency and Republican-controlled Senate is seen as unlikely to raise taxes and also imply a more predictable approach to trade policy. Back home, aviation stocks were in focus with the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation’s (MOCA) statement that India's domestic passenger traffic has reached more than half of pre-coronavirus pandemic level operations with the number of daily air travellers crossing over two lakh in November. In scrip specific development, Maruti Suzuki gained as its total October passenger vehicle production rose 50.7 percent to 1.76 lakh from 1.17 lakh, Y-o-Y. On other hand, BHEL is trading under pressure after it posted a net loss of Rs 552 crore in Q2FY21 as compared to a profit of Rs 121.7 crore, Y-o-Y.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 42485.85, up by 592.79 points or 1.42% after trading in a range of 42273.97 and 42566.34. There were 29 stocks advancing against 1 stock declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.76%, while Small cap index was up by 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.03%, Telecom up by 1.79%, Oil & Gas up by 1.37%, Realty up by 1.36%, Energy up by 1.27%, while there was no loser.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 3.68%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.26%, Axis Bank up by 1.98%, Infosys up by 1.81% and Power Grid up by 1.79%. On the flip side, ITC down by 0.14% was the sole loser.

Meanwhile, former Reserve Bank Governor Bimal Jalan has opined against a fresh fiscal stimulus to boost pandemic-hit economy saying it is more important to spend the amount already committed by the government than to increase the fiscal deficit target again.

Talking on India's current macroeconomic situation, Jalan said the COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse effect on economic activity, but now the Indian economy is on a revival mode. He noted that the expectation is that by 2021, this loss in jobs and the loss in growth would have been made up by the end of 2021. He also said and by 2021-22, if there is no recurrence of a similar COVID-19 crisis in the next few months, then the economy would certainly improve and the rate of growth 2021-22 may be 6-7 percent. But, he said ‘we will have to wait and see that the COVID-19 issue does not recur again.’

Asserting that the government has done a very important job in announcing the policies to boost the pandemic-hit economy, the former RBI Governor said the main issue that India needs to grapple with is implementation of policies. He emphasized that the government has announced some very good policies and the main issue before the government now is to implement, and the implementation has to be done quickly. On inflation, he expects inflation in the next year would also be lower with a good agriculture output.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12437.65, up by 174.10 points or 1.42% after trading in a range of 12383.90 and 12451.80. There were 47 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Divis Lab up by 4.04%, ICICI Bank up by 3.51%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.10%, BPCL up by 2.90% and Axis Bank up by 2.26%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 0.53%, Cipla down by 0.25% and Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.18% were the few losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 590.57 points or 2.43% to 24,915.80, Straits Times rose 27.60 points or 1.07% to 2,606.28, Hang Seng jumped 416.81 points or 1.62% to 26,129.78, Taiwan Weighted gained 91.12 points or 0.70% to 13,064.65, KOSPI soared 34.86 points or 1.44% to 2,451.36 and Shanghai Composite was up by 62.89 points or 1.90% to 3,375.05, while Jakarta Composite lost 0.77 points or 0.01% to 5,334.76.