Key indices manage to trade in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks erased most of their initial gains but managed to trade in green in morning deals tracking positive global cues and ahead of the RBI's monetary policy outcome. Sentiments remained positive with Economic Affairs Secretary Tarun Bajaj’s statement that the government is sticking to the target of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25 and emphasis on infrastructure sector and other initiatives taken in Budget 2021-22 are aimed at achieving the goal. The spending on infrastructure has gone up from Rs 4.12 lakh crore to Rs 5.54 lakh crore while on the health sector it has risen to Rs 2.23 lakh crore from Rs 94,000 crore in the Budget Estimate for 2020-21. Adding to the optimism, International Monetary Fund (IMF) welcomed India's Union Budget for focussing on growth and said fiscal policy can and should play an important role in facilitating a strong and inclusive economic recovery. IMF’s Director of Communications, Gerry Rice has said that the Union Budget rightly focuses on health, education, public infrastructure and, if fully implemented, can help increase India's growth potential.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher as declining Covid-19 case counts and upbeat U.S. jobless claims data boosted investors' appetite for riskier assets. Back home, on the sectoral front, Broadcasting & Cable TV industry stocks will be in focus after Telecom regulator TRAI issued its recommendations on the back reference from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on the authority's earlier guidelines on the regulatory framework for platform services offered by DTH. TRAI recommended that programmes transmitted by the DTH operators or MSOs or IPTV operators as a platform service shall be exclusive and the same shall not be permitted to be shared directly or indirectly with any other DPO.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 50782.37, up by 168.08 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 50702.95 and 51073.27. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.62%, while Small cap index was down by 0.27%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 2.44%, Bankex up by 2.27%, Realty up by 1.24%, Consumer Durables up by 0.69% and Energy up by 0.36%, while Telecom down by 2.27%, Metal down by 1.73%, TECK down by 1.54%, Auto down by 1.51% and IT down by 1.22% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 12.45%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.30%, Indusind Bank up by 1.23%, HDFC Bank up by 1.20% and HDFC up by 0.94%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.45%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.38%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.80%, TCS down by 1.63% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.40% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has exuded confidence that the disinvestment calendar announced in the Union Budget will work well. She said the three large areas where the big-ticket expenditure will happen are infrastructure, health and agriculture. The budget had pegged disinvestment receipts for the 2021-22 fiscal beginning April 1 at Rs 1.75 lakh crore.

The government is targeting to conclude strategic sale of BPCL, Air India, Shipping Corporation of India, Container Corporation of India, IDBI Bank, BEML, Pawan Hans, Neelachal Ispat Nigam, in the next fiscal. Besides, the initial public offering of LIC would be launched and strategic sale process of two PSU banks and one general insurance company would be initiated.

Sitharaman said ‘I underline that we have not burdened any section of Indian society with any additional demand for even an additional rupee.’ She added the government is confident that revenue generation will improve through this year and it will be bringing in non-tax revenue other than just disinvestments through various routes, including monetisation of assets. She further said the budget is trying to raise non-tax resources at a time when a lot of money has to be spent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14928.05, up by 32.40 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 14894.55 and 15014.65. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI up by 12.76%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.42%, Indusind Bank up by 1.30%, HDFC Bank up by 1.23% and Axis Bank up by 1.02%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.75%, Coal India down by 2.68%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.48%, JSW Steel down by 2.42% and Tata Motors down by 2.25% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading higher; Hang Seng increased 152.45 points or 0.52% to 29,265.95, Nikkei 225 surged 341.86 points or 1.21% to 28,683.81, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 119.58 points or 0.76% to 15,825.80, KOSPI rose 6.46 points or 0.21% to 3,094.01, Shanghai Composite gained 16.23 points or 0.46% to 3,518.09, Straits Times advanced 1.04 points or 0.04% to 2,906.62 and Jakarta Composite soared 19.62 points or 0.32% to 6,126.84.