Markets trade in fine-fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made optimistic start on Wednesday tracking gains in Asian peers. Markets are trading in fine-fettle in early deals on the back of buying in Bankex, PSU and Energy stocks. Sentiments got a boost after Nilesh Shah, a part-time member of the economic advisory council to the Prime Minister, said the GDP contraction will improve to higher single digits in the September quarter, and the economy will be back to positive growth by the March quarter. though, upside remained limited with S&P Global Ratings’ statement that non-performing loans in the Indian banking sector is likely to witness an uptick and may shoot up to 11 per cent of gross loans in the next 12-18 months. Meanwhile, India reported 44,276 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking its tally to 9,221,998. The country's death toll mounted to 134,743.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly higher following the record closing highs overnight on Wall Street as news about U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's transition to the White House and continued optimism about coronavirus vaccines boosted risk appetite. Back home, aviation industry stocks were in focus with ICRA’s report that the Maharashtra government’s decision to make coronavirus negative report mandatory for those entering the state from four certain states is expected to impact the domestic travel demand further. In scrip specific development, Max Financial Services gained after it reported a profit of Rs 81 crore in Q2FY21 as compared to Rs 64.4 crore, and revenue increased to Rs 7,020 crore from Rs 4,686 crore Y-o-Y.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 44750.65, up by 227.63 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 44708.11 and 44825.37. 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 0.02%, while Small cap index was up by 0.27%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.07%, PSU up by 1.02%, Energy up by 0.96%, Metal up by 0.91%, Consumer Durables up by 0.81%, while IT down by 0.50%, Power down by 0.47%, TECK down by 0.36%, Capital Goods down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 3.75%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.00%, ICICI Bank up by 1.86%, SBI up by 1.68% and Titan Company up by 1.36%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.30%, HCL Technologies down by 0.76%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.69%, Nestle down by 0.67% and Asian Paints down by 0.66% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, CII National Committee on Retail Chairman Shashwat Goenka has said that a cohesive national retail policy would go a long way in reviving the sector and help generate up to 30 lakh additional jobs in the country by 2024, He said a thorough national retail policy would help the sector bounce back and grow exponentially in the years to come.

Goenka has noted that as per industry estimates, around 5 crore people are employed in the organised retail sector in India. He also said moving forward as the industry revives from its slump, new and emerging models need to be deliberated in order to accelerate the recovery process. He stated that the industry is still hampered by the loss in the demand therefore proactive steps need to be taken in order to revive consumer confidence as well.

To address these challenges and bottlenecks faced by the sector across formats, he believed that the government should come up with a cohesive model retail policy. He also said today more than ever it is imperative to create a necessary environment for conducive growth with the national retail policy. He added that by implementing a cohesive retail policy the government can fuel the sector's growth which can generate up to 30 lakh additional jobs by 2024, apart from creating indirect job opportunities in allied sectors.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 13122.75, up by 67.60 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 13113.15 and 13145.85. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 3.94%, Tata Motors up by 2.12%, ICICI Bank up by 2.05%, Grasim Industries up by 1.99% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.87%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.33%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.97%, HCL Technologies down by 0.86%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.74% and Infosys down by 0.67% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly higher; Nikkei 225 jumped 305.65 points or 1.17% to 26,471.24, Straits Times rose 8.87 points or 0.31% to 2,900.50, Hang Seng gained 226.46 points or 0.85% to 26,814.66, KOSPI surged 8.17 points or 0.31% to 2,625.93 and Jakarta Composite added 9.79 points or 0.17% to 5,710.82. On other hand, Taiwan Weighted slipped 63.35 points or 0.46% to 13,743.78 and Shanghai Composite was down by 7.49 points or 0.22% to 3,395.33.