Local gauges remain in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in green terrain in morning deals, led by gains in Banking, IT and TECK stocks. Sentiments remained positive as the Finance Ministry released the ninth installment of Rs 6,000 crore to the states to meet GST compensation shortfall, taking the total amount of fund released to Rs 54,000 crore. The Centre had set up a special borrowing window in October 2020 to meet the estimated shortfall of Rs 1.10 lakh crore in revenue arising on account of implementation of GST. Market participants also took a note of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) paper stating that maintaining the inflation target at 4 percent is appropriate for India as targeting a lower rate could impart deflationary bias to the monetary policy. It said under the current dispensation, the RBI has been mandated by the government to maintain retail inflation at 4 percent with a margin of 2 percent on either side. An appreciation in the rupee value against the US dollar too supported markets. Indian rupee is currently trading at 73.40 against the US dollar, registering a surge of 9 paise over its previous close.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed amid rising optimism about coronavirus vaccines, and on hopes the U.S. government will come out with more stimulus measures sometime soon. Back home, on the sectoral front, stocks related to agriculture sector remained in focus as Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the 100th run of the Kisan Rail service in the country between Sangola in Maharashtra and Shalimar in West Bengal, and asserted that his government has undertaken historic reforms in the farm sector to boost agriculture and strengthen farmers.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 47639.30, up by 285.55 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 47466.62 and 47714.55. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.26%, while Small cap index was up by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.26%, IT up by 0.93%, TECK up by 0.78%, FMCG up by 0.38% and PSU up by 0.35%, while Metal down by 0.58%, Energy down by 0.45%, Power down by 0.35%, Capital Goods down by 0.24% and Telecom down by 0.20% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 3.76%, HCL Tech. up by 2.10%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.82%, HDFC up by 1.81% and ITC up by 1.62%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 0.75%, Reliance Industries down by 0.62%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.57%, Power Grid down by 0.55% and Nestle down by 0.52% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) in a joint survey with Dhruva Advisors has stated that India could benefit from the likely shift in global supply chains from China to other economies in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ficci-Dhruva Advisors Survey conducted this month covered more than 150 companies in India.

Ficci on the findings of the survey said another major outcome of COVID-19 is the likely shift in global supply chains away from China to other economies. Nearly 70 per cent of the survey participants have said India could benefit from this move and they expect a fair share of manufacturing to shift from China to India in the near future.

Moreover, the survey revealed the prospect of introduction of a vaccine against COVID-19 early next year has improved the confidence level of businesses, with almost 74 per cent of the participants foreseeing a significant positive impact on their business once the vaccine is made available. However, to capitalise on the opportunities that could come India's way, there is need to strengthen its manufacturing ecosystem. Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package, the government has introduced several measures to address the immediate pain points of the economy as well as steps to improve India's manufacturing competitiveness.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 13942.75, up by 69.55 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 13909.95 and 13967.60. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 3.57%, HCL Tech. up by 2.16%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.83%, HDFC up by 1.77% and ITC up by 1.58%. On the flip side, JSW Steel down by 1.10%, Tata Motors down by 1.05%, Hindalco down by 0.75%, NTPC down by 0.70% and Nestle down by 0.57% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Taiwan Weighted dropped 31.02 points or 0.21% to 14,452.05, Jakarta Composite lost 17.80 points or 0.29% to 6,075.75, Shanghai Composite declined 11.15 points or 0.33% to 3,386.14 and KOSPI fell 6.01 points or 0.21% to 2,802.59. On the flip side, Straits Times advanced 6.65 points or 0.23% to 2,846.79, Hang Seng increased 275.99 points or 1.05% to 26,590.62 and Nikkei 225 surged 622.65 points or 2.32% to 27,476.68.