Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended with strong gains on Wednesday. Indices made a positive start of the day, amid a private report that India's GDP may turn positive at 1.3 percent in the third quarter of 2020-21, having witnessed contraction in the previous two quarters due to the coronavirus pandemic, as the number of cases is falling and public spending has started rising. Some support also came in as Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the government's decision to increase the agriculture credit target to Rs 16.5 lakh crore for the next fiscal will help in easing the liquidity crunch of farmers.

After one hour of trade, trading had been halted on NSE due to a technical glitch, while trading on the BSE was functioning normally. Sensex remained higher during the session, taking support with Union Minister Sadananda Gowda’s statement that the chemicals and petrochemicals sector has huge potential and can contribute significantly towards achieving the government's target of $5 trillion economy. He also said India has potential to become a global petrochemical hub & factors like high GDP growth, presence of skilled manpower, big domestic market makes India an attractive platform for investment in the sector.

In late afternoon deals, the National Stock Exchange re-opened and the NSE and the BSE remained opened till 5:00 pm. Traders took a note of Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant’s statement that India now needs to get into cutting edge technology in order to boost its exports which will benefit sectors such as telecom, automobiles, battery storage devices, and solar energy, among others. The street also took note of report that India and Mauritius have signed a free trade agreement, under which over 300 domestic goods from agriculture, textiles, electronics and other sectors will get market access at concessional customs duties in the African nation.

Key indices jumped sharply during the last hour of the trading session, amid reports that companies in India are likely to offer a 7.7 percent salary increase in 2021, one of the highest among the BRIC nations, and higher than the average actual increase of 6.1 percent in 2020. Global professional services firm Aon Plc on Tuesday released insights from its latest Salary Increase Survey in India, as of which 88 percent of the surveyed companies reported that they intend to increase salaries in 2021, as compared to 75 percent companies in 2020, reflecting positive business sentiment.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in green as markets digest remarks from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and promising German data. Asian markets ended lower on Wednesday, after Malaysia's consumer prices declined at a softer pace in January. The data from the Department of Statistics showed that the consumer price index declined 0.2 percent year-on-year in January, following a 1.4 percent fall in December. The annual fall was largely driven by the decline in transportation cost, as prices fell 5.1 percent.

The BSE Sensex ended at 50,781.69, up by 1030.28 points or 2.07% after trading in a range of 49648.78 and 50881.17. There were 21 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.72%, while Small cap index was up by 1.09%.(Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 3.40%, Capital Goods up by 1.84%, Energy up by 1.65%, Telecom up by 1.57% and Industrials up by 1.48%, while Utilities down by 0.22%, Power down by 0.17% and IT down by 0.13% were the only losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC Bank up by 4.72%, Axis Bank up by 4.65%, ICICI Bank up by 3.55%, Bajaj Finance up by 3.16% and HDFC up by 2.78%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.36%, Power Grid down by 1.35%, TCS down by 1.20%, NTPC down by 0.53% and Asian Paints down by 0.52% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the commerce ministry in its latest report has showed that India's exports to China has increased by 16.15 per cent to $20.87 billion in 2020 from $17.9 billion in the previous year on account of healthy growth in the shipments of ores, iron and steel, aluminum and copper.

As per the report, trade deficit with China has declined 19.39 per cent from $56.95 billion in 2019 to $45.91 billion in 2020 as the country's imports from the neighbouring country contracted 10.87 per cent to $66.78 billion from $74.92 billion in 2019.

The report further said that in the agriculture sector, the main export commodities which recorded healthy growth includes cane sugar, soybean oil, and vegetables fats and oils. However, the exports of mangoes, fish oil, tea, and fresh grapes declined.

The CNX Nifty ended at 14,982.00, up by 274.20 points or 1.86% after trading in a range of 14723.05 and 14822.25. There were 25 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 4.75%, HDFC Bank up by 2.05%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.91%, Axis Bank up by 1.89% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.84%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 2.38%, TCS down by 1.66%, UPL down by 1.35%, Tata Motors down by 1.23% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.87% were the top losers. (Provisional)
 
European markets were trading mostly in green, France’s CAC increased 5.41 points or 0.09% to 5,785.25 and Germany’s DAX was up by 68.83 points or 0.5% to 13,933.64. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 41.96 points or 0.63% to 6,583.98.

Asian markets ended lower on Wednesday, despite signs that the US Federal Reserve would continue its fiscal policy support. Meanwhile, persistent concerns over inflation and steep asset valuations adding some pressure on market sentiments. Japanese shares ended sharply down as technology stocks succumbed to profit taking following a decline in the Nasdaq Composite index overnight. Hong Kong shares ended lower after the city’s government announced it would increase the stamp duty on stock trading in the global financial hub for the first time since 1993. Moreover, Chinese shares also declined as US President Joe Biden showed readiness to meddle the Canadian citizens’ evacuation from Beijing.