Sensex, Nifty maintain gaining rally

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade higher in late morning deals, with both Sensex and Nifty maintaining their gaining rally, as bulls are holding a grip over the Dalal Street. Positive cues from other Asian markets were helping key indices to hold their strong gains in late morning session. Domestic sentiments got boost, as showing signs of improvement, the country's exports grew 22.47 per cent year-on-year to $6.75 billion in the first week of November, mainly driven by healthy growth in pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery and engineering sectors. The exports during the first week of November last year was $5.51 billion.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after consumer prices in China were up just 0.5 percent on year in October.  The National Bureau of Statistics said that was shy of expectations for 0.8 percent and down sharply from 1.7 percent. On a monthly basis, consumer prices sank 0.3 percent - again missing forecasts for an increase of 0.2 percent, which would have been unchanged. The bureau also said that producer prices were down 2.1 percent on year - unchanged from the previous month but missing expectations for a decline of 2.0 percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 42992.79, up by 395.36 points or 0.93% after trading in a range of 42660.09 and 43118.11. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.06%, while Small cap index was down by 0.05%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.84%, Capital Goods up by 2.44%, Industrials up by 1.92%, Realty up by 1.82% and PSU up by 1.63%, while IT down by 3.14%, TECK down by 2.77%, Healthcare down by 2.05%, FMCG down by 0.85% and Telecom down by 0.64% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 6.20%, Indusind Bank up by 5.23%, Bajaj Finserv up by 4.77%, Larsen & Toubro up by 4.65% and SBI up by 4.31%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 4.63%, HCL Tech down by 3.82%, Infosys down by 3.78%, Nestle down by 2.89% and TCS down by 2.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the power ministry stated that it has mandated all electricity distribution utilities or discoms to comply with the Energy Conservation (EC) Act, 2001, which would reduce energy losses and bring in more transparency in the sector. Earlier, only discoms with annual energy losses equal to or above 1,000 MU (million units), notified as designated consumers, used to come under the purview of the EC Act. The ministry had issued a notification on September 28, 2020 to cover all electricity distribution companies (discoms) under the preview of the EC Act.

As per the notification, which was formulated in consultation with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), ‘All entities having issued distribution license by State/Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission under the Electricity Act, 2003...’ are notified as designated consumers (DCs). After this notification, all discoms will be governed under various provisions of the EC Act, such as appointment of energy manager, energy accounting and auditing, identification of energy losses category-wise, and implementation of energy conservation and efficiency measures. With this, the number of discoms covered under the EC Act will increase from 44 to 102.

The ministry said this decision will facilitate energy accounting and auditing as mandatory activity for all the discoms, leading to the actions towards reducing losses and increase their profitability. It added that the amendment is expected to help discoms to monitor their performance parameters and bring in transparency in the distribution sector through professional inputs. It will also assist in developing projects for reducing the electricity losses by discoms and implementing effective solutions. The amendment is expected to improve the financial state of discoms. The quarterly data of these discoms will be collected and monitored by the government to suggest measures for increasing the efficiency and reduce the energy losses.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12567.50, up by 106.45 points or 0.85% after trading in a range of 12475.25 and 12598.35. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 6.31%, Indusind Bank up by 5.06%, Bajaj Finserv up by 4.81%, Larsen & Toubro up by 4.40% and SBI up by 4.21%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 4.69%, Cipla down by 4.31%, Infosys down by 3.71%, HCL Tech down by 3.68% and Nestle down by 3.07% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 195.92 points or 0.75% to 26,212.09, Jakarta Composite soared 82.78 points or 1.55% to 5,438.79, Straits Times advanced 77.37 points or 2.97% to 2,686.73, Nikkei 225 surged 61.12 points or 0.25% to 24,900.96 and Shanghai Composite gained 3.91 points or 0.12% to 3,377.64. On the flip side, KOSPI fell 1.26 points or 0.05% to 2,445.94 and Taiwan Weighted dropped 75.67 points or 0.58% to 13,051.80.