Barometer gauges maintain gains

Indian equity markets maintained their upward momentum in the afternoon session, following gains in IT, TECK and FMCG stocks. Healthy buying was observed in blue-chip stocks like Infosys, HCL Tech and HDFC. Sentiments were upbeat as India’s exports grew 16.22 percent YoY to $6.21 billion in the first week of January, mainly driven by healthy growth in pharmaceuticals, and engineering sectors, reflecting signs of revival. Imports during January 1-7 this year too increased by 1.07 percent to $8.7 billion as against $8.6 billion in the same period of 2020. Some support also came as Fitch Ratings expects India's economy to contract by a record 9.4 per cent in the current fiscal year ending March 2021 (FY21) amid the shock from coronavirus pandemic but this represents a 1.1 percentage point improvement from its previous forecast, reflecting a stronger-than-anticipated rebound in 3Q 2020.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed despite further massive stimulus for the US economy, with President-elect Joe Biden calling for a spending spree in the trillions of dollars. Back on street, in scrip specific developments, Reliance Infrastructure touched roof on completing sale of 74% stake in PKTCL to IndiGrid and Trident surged after reporting 12,275 metric tons of paper production in December.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 49102.65, up by 320.14 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 48956.38 and 49269.02. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.59%, while Small cap index was down by 0.40%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.94%, TECK up by 2.54%, FMCG up by 0.78%, Realty up by 0.68% and Auto was up by 0.59%, while Metal down by 2.04%, Capital Goods down by 1.37%, Basic Materials down by 1.06%, Power down by 0.87% and Energy was down by 0.84% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 4.59%, HCL Tech up by 3.52%, HDFC up by 1.76%, HDFC Bank up by 1.70% and Hindustan Unilever was up by 1.67%. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.67%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.65%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.41%, Reliance Industries down by 1.17% and SBI was down by 1.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, pitching to place a regulator for the sectors, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that big players in the steel and cement industry are indulging in cartelization to jack-up prices. He noted that it will be difficult to achieve government’s dream of making India a $5 trillion economy if the steel and cement prices keep going up.

Gadkari has stated that allegations of such cartelisation have been made in the past as well, especially by the real estate industry, which is impacted through higher input prices because of it. He has discussed the issue with the Prime Minister and had a lengthy discussion on it with the Principal Secretary in the PMO as well.

Stating that all the players in the steel industry have their own iron ore mines, and do not have to face any hikes in labour or power rates, the minister wondered how the steel industry has been hiking prices. He added that the cement industry is exploiting the situation by hiking up the prices, and underlined that the stance of both the industries is not in the national interest, given the infrastructure spends lined up.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14431.60, up by 84.35 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 14383.10 and 14479.70. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 4.71%, Wipro up by 3.95%, HCL Tech up by 3.55%, Tata Motors up by 3.05% and Coal India was up by 2.25%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.15%, Tata Steel down by 2.90%, Adani Ports down by 1.76%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.73% and Larsen & Toubro was down by 1.66% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Taiwan Weighted strengthened 93.35 points or 0.6% to 15,557.30, Jakarta Composite soared 84.67 points or 1.35% to 6,342.51 and Hang Seng was down by 13.27 points or 0.05% to 27,891.49. On the other side; KOSPI fell 3.73 points or 0.12% to 3,148.45, Straits Times trembled 5.87 points or 0.2% to 2,987.32 and Shanghai Composite was down by 53.12 points or 1.49% to 3,516.99.