Indian equity benchmarks maintained their trade in green terrain during late morning deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading marginally higher. Positive cues from other Asian markets helped key indices to remain in green terrain. Traders were getting relief, after S&P Global Ratings said that India is on track for an economic recovery in the fiscal year ending March 2022. It said in a report titled 'Cross-Sector Outlook: India's Escape From Covid' that consistently good agriculture performance, a flattening of the Covid-19 infection curve and a pickup in government spending are all supporting the economy. Besides, growing for the second consecutive month, India’s merchandise exports rose 6.16 percent year-on-year to $27.45 billion in January 2021 over the same period of last year, following healthy growth in pharma and engineering sectors. Trade deficit during the month narrowed to $14.54 billion from $15.3 billion in January 2020. It was $15.44 billion in December 2020.
On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher, after Indonesia's trade balance swung to a surplus in January, as exports rose and imports declined. The figures from Statistics Indonesia showed that the trade balance registered a surplus of $1.958 billion in January versus a deficit of $636.7 million a year ago. In December, the trade surplus was $2.099 billion. Exports grew 12.24 percent year-on-year in January. Imports fell 6.49 percent annually in January.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52244.32, up by 90.19 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 52171.10 and 52516.76. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.
The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.28%, while Small cap index was up by 0.40%.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.15%, Power up by 2.38%, Utilities up by 1.92%, Energy up by 1.71% and Oil & Gas up by 1.49%, while IT down by 0.36%, Bankex down by 0.25%, TECK down by 0.24%, FMCG down by 0.23% and Consumer Durables down by 0.16% were the top losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 4.62%, Power Grid up by 3.63%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.37%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.79% and NTPC up by 1.42%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.08%, ICICI Bank down by 2.07%, Nestle down by 1.42%, Asian Paints down by 1.21% and Bajaj Finserv down by 1.05% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), in its review of the current financial year ending March 31, has said that the country's information technology sector is set to post a 2.3 per cent rise in revenues to $194 billion in the current fiscal (FY21), despite a dip in global technology spending amid the coronavirus pandemic. The industry added 1.38 lakh people to its workforce on a net basis during the year, taking the total number of employees to 44.7 lakh.
Over the past few years, the industry has been clocking a revenue growth in higher single digits or double digits as the demand for IT services in a digitising world continues to grow. However, the pandemic led to a sharp dip in growth hitting tech spend while the lockdown also led to concerns over delivery as work shifted from campuses to homes. Nasscom's President Debjani Ghosh said the industry reworked its models amid the lockdowns and ensured that work continues to get delivered as per schedules, and IT is now the first sector to call out a revival post pandemic. She said ‘we have emerged more resilient and more relevant from the crisis. We have been the bellwether to lead the fight against COVID’.
Exports for the fiscal year ending March 2021 are set to grow 1.9 per cent to $150 billion while domestic revenues are projected to rise at a faster clip of 3.4 per cent to $45 billion. IT services segment will grow 2.7 per cent to $99 billion while Business Process Management (BPM) will see a growth of 2.3 per cent at $38 billion. Software products segment will witness a growth of 2.7 per cent at $9 billion and hardware grow 4.1 per cent to $16 billion. The only segment which de-grew during the fiscal year is engineering and research and development where revenues were down 0.2 per cent to $31 billion. The e-commerce segment will see a 4.8 per cent growth in revenues at $57 billion on the back of a 82 per cent jump in e-tail even as there will be a 75 per cent de-growth in e-travel sub-segments.
Nasscom said there was a 3.2 per cent decline in global tech spend on the back of a 3.5 per cent contraction in the global GDP. The IT industry now delivers 8 per cent of Indian GDP, contributes to over half of services exports and 50 per cent of the foreign direct investment. The domestic industry players filed 1.15 lakh patents in FY21 in India and 8,000 in the US while 1,600 new startups were added during the same period, taking the total number of such tech companies to 12,500. In terms of outlook, Nasscom pointed to some of the listed companies mentioning about a pipeline of over $15 billion while a survey of 100 chief executives also painted a positive picture.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15351.35, up by 36.65 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 15332.70 and 15431.75. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.
The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 5.28%, Tata Steel up by 4.02%, Hindalco up by 3.84%, Power Grid Corpn. up by 3.67% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.46%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.97%, Axis Bank down by 1.68%, Nestle down by 1.33%, Asian Paints down by 1.13% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.88% were the top losers.
Asian markets were trading higher; Hang Seng increased 543.81 points or 1.8% to 30,717.38, Jakarta Composite soared 19.26 points or 0.31% to 6,289.58, KOSPI rose 11.62 points or 0.37% to 3,158.62, Straits Times advanced 6.96 points or 0.24% to 2,938.48 and Nikkei 225 surged 606.45 points or 2.02% to 30,690.60.
