Markets continue to trade higher in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade higher in morning deals, on account of broad-based buying by participants amid positive domestic and global cues. Investor sentiment remained upbeat with the Crisil report stated that on the back of timely government and regulatory measures this fiscal, which helped the economy to recover faster than expected, bank credit is seen growing 400-500 bps to 9-10 percent in the next financial year. In the current fiscal, bank credit is expected to rise 4-5 percent despite the sharpest contraction in the economy since Independence. Some support also came with the finance ministry stating that the Centre has released Rs 1.04 lakh crore to states in four months since October 2020, to meet GST compensation shortfall. Traders also took a note of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) statement that Economic activity is gaining steam in India as Covid-19 incidences recede but private investments are missing in action. It also said the ongoing vaccine rollout is releasing pent-up optimism. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green as investor concerns about inflation and higher interest rates receded. Separately, the Ministry of Communications and Internal Affairs said the unemployment rate in Japan came in at a seasonally adjusted 2.9 percent in January. That was unchanged from the December reading and shy of expectations for 3.0 percent. Back home, on the sectoral front, power stocks remained in watch as data showed India's power consumption grew 0.88 percent in February at 104.73 billion units (BU) due to a slight rise in temperature in the month. Power consumption in February 2020 was 103.81 BU.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 50273.89, up by 424.05 points or 0.85% after trading in a range of 50008.50 and 50424.65. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.20%, while Small cap index was up by 1.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.72%, Oil & Gas up by 1.66%, TECK up by 1.64%, Utilities up by 1.58% and Power up by 1.38%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 3.64%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.62%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.55%, Infosys up by 2.01% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.86%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.07%, HDFC down by 0.81% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.42% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked civil accounts officers to have a clear road map for seamless digital payments, saying there were lessons to be learnt from the technology-driven glitch that happened at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) last week. The NSE had on last Wednesday halted trading on the stock exchange for nearly four hours due to a technical glitch.

She mentioned ‘Seamlessness of payments is more important... I will bring it here as an example to say even where complete foolproof systems are laid, you find in the NSE a couple of days ago when there was a glitch, a kind of technology-driven glitch, which nobody could have anticipated, but that glitch has cost us immensely and lessons are being learnt. Maybe that was an issue of interoperability between the two exchanges, but that is the kind of thing where seamless digital payment is the goal that we have to aspire for.’

She said the CGA, which is the bookkeeper of government accounts, had adopted great systemic reforms. To keep government accounts transparent, the CGA will have to adapt and keep pace with changing technology to keep government accounts transparent. She suggested that the CGA should move towards being more paperless and user friendly in its functioning and also aim for greater integration with the department of expenditure and states.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14883.30, up by 121.75 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 14813.65 and 14933.65. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 4.88%, NTPC up by 3.41%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.64%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.55% and Tech Mahindra up by 2.52%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.03%, HDFC down by 0.92%, Shree Cement down by 0.46%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.44% and Eicher Motors down by 0.39% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted strengthened 125.00 points or 0.78% to 16,078.80, KOSPI rose 22.98 points or 0.76% to 3,035.93, Straits Times advanced 7.80 points or 0.26% to 2,980.80 and Jakarta Composite soared 6.25 points or 0.1% to 6,344.76.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 35.11 points or 0.99% to 3,516.29, Hang Seng decreased 193.94 points or 0.66% to 29,258.63 and Nikkei 225 slipped 290.87 points or 0.98% to 29,372.63.