Local indices remain in green terrain in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in green terrain in morning deals, tracking Asian peers as investors continued to ride the positive sentiment from news of a highly successful vaccine trial and Joe Biden's US election victory. Sentiments remained positive with Crisil Ratings in its latest report stated that revenue of the agrochemical sector is likely to grow 12-14 per cent in the ongoing financial year (FY21) on the back of sharp recovery in offtake from domestic agriculture sector and continuing healthy exports. However, gains remained capped as some cautiousness came with Rating agency ICRA’s report that states are likely to cut capital outlay on infrastructure by up to 40 percent, with coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic severely impacting revenues of state governments, and additional expenditure towards healthcare and public welfare.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green after a worldwide rally spurred by hopes that a COVID-19 vaccine will help the global economy return to normal. Back home, on the sectoral front, sugar stocks remained in focus with a private report that India has revived a proposal to get sugar mills to export 6 million tonnes of the sweetener by incentivising overseas sales in the 2020/21 season, the third year in a row, as part of efforts to cut surplus stocks and prop up local prices.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 43575.14, up by 297.49 points or 0.69% after trading in a range of 43347.64 and 43708.47.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.78%, while Small cap index was up by 0.66%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 2.27%, Auto up by 1.55%, Power up by 1.40%, Bankex up by 1.23% and PSU up by 1.16%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.72%, Energy down by 0.13% and FMCG down by 0.03% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 2.70%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.67%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.63%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.61% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.56%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 2.41%, Asian Paints down by 1.33%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.28%, Titan Co down by 1.11% and Reliance Industries down by 0.37% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Centre government has released Rs 6,195 crore as the eight equated monthly installment of post-devolution revenue deficit grants to 14 states. The 14 states included Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh (HP), Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

Kerala received the highest amount of this batch of grants at Rs 1,277 crore followed by Rs 952 crore to HP and Rs 638 crore to Punjab. The latest grant comes after the finance ministry recently released Rs 6,000 crore to 16 states and three Union Territories as part of the second tranche of the special window for goods and services tax (GST) compensation shortfall.

Apart from the states’ share in the divisible pool of taxes collected by the Centre, the Finance Commission as part of its interim report for the current fiscal, had provided a mechanism for the compensation of states for revenue losses incurred called post-devolution revenue deficit grants.Both the Centre and states have been facing an acute revenue shortage on account of the pandemic and the lockdown. The tussle for funds between the two tiers of government came to a head recently in recent months on the issue of GST compensation shortfall.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12734.90, up by 103.80 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 12656.60 and 12769.75. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 4.14%, Hindalco up by 3.67%, Divis Lab up by 2.83%, Cipla up by 2.82% and Tata Motors up by 2.81%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 2.99%, Titan Company down by 1.59%, Asian Paints down by 1.44%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.06% and Britannia Inds down by 0.82% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 433.94 points or 1.74% to 25,339.53, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 146.83 points or 1.12% to 13,228.55, Jakarta Composite soared 46.27 points or 0.85% to 5,509.01, KOSPI rose 27.63 points or 1.13% to 2,480.46 and Shanghai Composite gained 2.92 points or 0.09% to 3,363.07.

On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 14.63 points or 0.54% to 2,690.37 and Hang Seng decreased 20.07 points or 0.08% to 26,281.41.