Benchmarks add gains in late afternoon session

Key benchmark indices added some more points on the street in late afternoon session, with the Sensex and Nifty trading above 49500 and 14525 levels, respectively. Sentiment on the street improved with report that Bharat Biotech inked a purchase agreement with the Government of India on January 11 to provide 55 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin at Rs 295 per dose. The Indian pharma firm will be providing its coronavirus vaccine directly to 12 states, and the process will be completed in two days by January 14. Local investors also cheered after ICRA projected that India's GDP will record a double-digit expansion of 10.1 percent in the upcoming fiscal year. It also expects the monetary policy to be changed to neutral from accommodative in the August 2021 Policy review or later. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as investors watched for details of President-elect Joe Biden's promised economic stimulus plan. European markets were trading lower, as COVID-19 vaccination campaigns get underway and global markets come off a mild start to the trading week amid concerns of unsustainable valuations across asset classes.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 49506.72, up by 237.40 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 49079.57 and 49543.36. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.75%, while Small cap index was up by 0.38%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.35%, Energy up by 2.58%, Oil & Gas up by 1.87%, Auto up by 1.83% and Telecom was up by 1.79%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.76%, FMCG down by 0.59%, Healthcare down by 0.45%, Capital Goods down by 0.38% and IT was down by 0.13% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 2.99%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.34%, HDFC Bank up by 2.31%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.71% and Axis Bank up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.65%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.81%, Nestle down by 1.78%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.77% and Titan Company down by 1.73% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to meet the GST compensation shortfall, the Ministry of Finance has released the 11th weekly instalment of Rs 6,000 crore to the States. Out of this, an amount of Rs 5,516.60 crore has been released to 23 States and an amount of Rs 483.40 crore has been released to the 3 Union Territories (UT) with Legislative Assembly (Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir & Puducherry) who are members of the GST Council. The remaining 5 States, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim do not have a gap in revenue on account of GST implementation.

As per the notification, the amount released this week was the 11th instalment of such funds provided to the States. The amount has been borrowed this week at an interest rate of 5.1057%. So far, an amount of Rs 66,000 crore has been borrowed by the Central Government through the special borrowing window at an average interest rate of 4.7271%.

In addition to providing funds through the special borrowing window to meet the shortfall in revenue on account of GST implementation, the Government of India has also granted additional borrowing permission equivalent to 0.50 % of Gross States Domestic Product (GSDP) to the states choosing Option-I to meet GST compensation shortfall to help them in mobilising additional financial resources.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14570.10, up by 85.35 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 14432.85 and 14581.65. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 9.45%, Eicher Motors up by 4.69%, GAIL India up by 3.83%, Coal India up by 3.42% and Reliance Industries up by 2.94%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.73%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.88%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.80%, Nestle down by 1.77% and Titan Company down by 1.76% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Hang Seng increased 368.53 points or 1.32% to 28,276.75, Shanghai Composite gained 76.84 points or 2.18% to 3,608.34, Nikkei 225 surged 25.31 points or 0.09% to 28,164.34 and Jakarta Composite was up by12.73 points or 0.2% to 6,395.67. On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 6.98 points or 0.23% to 2,976.92, KOSPI fell 22.50 points or 0.71% to 3,125.95 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 56.60 points or 0.36% to 15,500.70.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 5.98 points or 0.09% to 6,792.50, France’s CAC decreased 6.17 points or 0.11% to 5,656.26 and Germany’s DAX was down by 1.20 points or 0.01% to 13,935.46.