Markets manage to trade above water

Indian equity benchmarks pared almost all of their initial losses but were managing to trade above their neutral lines. Traders pared gains on concern that the growth of India’s service sector slowed in the month of November, although it remained well above the 50-level that separates growth from contraction, with a further upturn in new work supporting business activity growth and the first rise in employment for nine months. However, broader indices continued to outperform major indices as traders took some support with Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar’s statement that the Indian economy is coming out of the pandemic-induced degrowth and GDP growth will enter the positive territory in the fourth quarter of this fiscal (Q4FY21). Buying in PSU, metal and auto stocks keeping the market in green, while selling were witnessed in software, technology and telecom stocks.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 44654.88, up by 36.84 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 44641.53 and 44953.01. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.63%, while Small cap index was up by 0.70%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 2.11%, Metal up by 1.52%, Auto up by 0.95%, Oil & Gas up by 0.92%, Energy up by 0.89%, while IT down by 0.51%, TECK down by 0.48%, Telecom down by 0.37% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 4.51%, SBI up by 4.09%, Tata Steel up by 2.81%, NTPC up by 2.79% and Asian Paints up by 2.44%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 1.68%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.53%, Infosys down by 1.49%, HDFC Bank down by 1.29% and HDFC down by 1.16% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar has said the Indian economy is coming out of the pandemic-induced degrowth and GDP growth will enter the positive territory in the fourth quarter of this fiscal (Q4FY21). Kumar also said the Centre's new agriculture reform laws are aimed at increasing the income of farmers and the present agitation was a result of misunderstanding and miscommunication which need to be removed.

He mentioned ‘the second quarter GDP figure (contraction of 7.5 per cent) reflects that the economy is coming out of this pandemic-induced degrowth phase and my expectation is that in the third quarter, we will achieve the same level of economic activity as the year-ago period. The fourth quarter will show a small but positive growth over the previous year because the government has... ushered in many structural reforms and some more are in the pipeline.’

Besides, stating that all those reforms will provide a very strong foundation for accelerating the economic growth in the fiscal year 2021-22 and beyond, he said ‘we have now shrugged off the negative impact of the pandemic and are moving towards a sustained high growth trajectory in the coming years.’ About India's growth figure in the current fiscal year, he said it will be better than negative 9 or 10 per cent, as has been forecast by many, including the RBI.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 13124.25, up by 10.50 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 13115.85 and 13216.60. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 4.41%, SBI up by 3.83%, NTPC up by 2.80%, Tata Steel up by 2.65% and Asian Paints up by 2.26%. On the flip side, SBI Life Insurance down by 1.81%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.72%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.62%, Infosys down by 1.42% and HDFC Bank down by 1.24% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly higher; Nikkei 225 surged 8.39 points or 0.03% to 26,809.37, Straits Times increased 4.22 points or 0.15% to 2,815.17, Hang Seng surged 200 points or 0.75% to 26,732.58, KOSPI gained 16.06 points or 0.60% to 2,691.96 and Jakarta Composite added 5.05 points or 0.09% to 2,691.96. However, Taiwan Weighted slipped 12.05 points or 0.09% to 13,977.09 and Shanghai Composite was down by 6.82 points or 0.20% to 3,442.56.