Sensex, Nifty maintain gaining rally

Firm trade continued over the Dalal Street in late morning deals, with both Sensex and Nifty maintaining their strong gains. Domestic sentiments were positive, as the RBI announced it will conduct simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities under Open Market Operations (OMO) for Rs 10,000 crore each on January 7, 2021. The decision was taken after a review of current liquidity and financial conditions. Some relief also came with reports that retail inflation for industrial workers eased to 5.27 per cent in November compared to 5.91 per cent in October, mainly due to lower prices of certain food items.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets are closed on Friday on account of the New Year holiday. Back home, coal sector was in focus, after the government said the current domestic production is unable to meet the country's demand, even though the country is the world's second-largest producer of fossil fuel and the fifth-largest nation in terms of coal deposits.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 47901.59, up by 150.26 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 47771.15 and 47954.54. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.94%, while Small cap index was up by 0.82%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.91%, PSU up by 0.89%, Capital Goods up by 0.86%, IT up by 0.84% and Industrials up by 0.81%, while Bankex down by 0.01% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.64%, TCS up by 1.56%, SBI up by 1.46%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.09% and Indusind Bank up by 0.83%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.05%, Power Grid down by 0.45%, Sun Pharma down by 0.27%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.26% and NTPC down by 0.20% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Government data has showed that India's fiscal deficit in the eight months to the end of November stood at 10.75 trillion rupees, or 135.1% of the budgeted target for the whole fiscal year.  This is despite a reasonable pick-up in tax revenues during the month as economic activity gradually reverts to normalcy amid the pandemic.

The data showed that the gap between the Centre’s revenue and expenditure touched Rs 10.75 trillion between April and November. This is 33 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year and 35.1 per cent higher than the Budget estimates for the current fiscal year.

During the same period last year, fiscal deficit was 114.8 per cent of the Budget target. Fiscal deficit had breached the Budget target in July itself as there was a lockdown in the first quarter. Earlier this month, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman outlined the government’s resolve to increase spending to support the economy without worrying about the fiscal deficit target.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14023.50, up by 41.75 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 13991.35 and 14037.25. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.64%, TCS up by 2.01%, UPL up by 1.39%, SBI up by 1.31% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.25%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.14%, SBI Life Insurance down by 0.98%, Hindalco down by 0.85%, Power Grid down by 0.42% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.32% were the top losers.