Key gauges add some losses in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks added some losses in morning deals, taking cues from their global peers. Traders overlooked India Ratings and Research’s report stated that Non-Bank Finance Companies (NBFCs) are estimated to witness a 9.5 per cent jump in their assets under management in FY22, after a growth moderation in FY21. Maintaining its ‘stable’ outlook on both NBFCs and HFCs for FY22, it said Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) will post a higher growth at 10 per cent as home sales go up.  Market participants also paid no heed towards the commerce and industry ministry’s data showing that Foreign direct investment (FDI) in India grew 40 percent to $51.47 billion during April-December 2020-21 as against $36.77 billion in the same period of 2019-20. On the sectoral front, stocks related to Agriculture sector remained in focus as Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar hgas said the government is promoting the agriculture sector through reforms in the laws which seeks to bring revolutionary changes.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell repeated his pledge to keep credit flowing until Americans are back to work, rebutting investors who have openly doubted he can stick to that promise once the pandemic passes. Meanwhile, the Japanese government has extended the COVID-19 related state of emergency by two weeks for the Tokyo region to prevent a fresh wave of infections.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 50607.61, down by 238.47 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 50311.47 and 50886.19. 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 0.73%, while Small cap index was down by 0.17%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.62%, Energy up by 0.98% and Utilities up by 0.41%, while Metal down by 1.63%, Bankex down by 1.39%, Telecom down by 1.19%, Realty down by 0.76% and Healthcare down by 0.72% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 3.50%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.54%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.21%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.95% and Reliance Industries up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 3.99%, SBI down by 2.27%, ICICI Bank down by 1.98%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.76% and HDFC Bank down by 1.46% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, On a review of current liquidity and financial conditions, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that it will conduct simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities under Open Market Operations (OMO) on March 10, 2021. RBI will purchase four government securities of different maturity dates aggregating to Rs 20,000 crore and it will sell three securities aggregating to Rs 15,000 using the multiple price auction method.

The result of the auctions will be announced on the same day and successful participants should ensure availability of funds/securities in their Current account/SGL account, as the case may be, by 12 noon on March 12, 2021.

Further, RBI said that it reserves the right to decide on the quantum of purchase/sale of individual securities, accept bids/offers for less than the aggregate amount, purchase/sell marginally higher/lower than the aggregate amount due to rounding-off and accept or reject any or all the bid/offers either wholly or partially without assigning any reasons.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15017.45, down by 63.30 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 14929.25 and 15092.35. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 3.37%, GAIL India up by 3.12%, BPCL up by 1.79%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.41% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.23%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 3.78%, Wipro down by 3.50%, Tata Motors down by 2.55%, Hindalco down by 2.30% and SBI down by 2.14% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Shanghai Composite declined 3.24 points or 0.09% to 3,500.25, Jakarta Composite lost 13.40 points or 0.21% to 6,277.40, KOSPI fell 26.85 points or 0.88% to 3,016.64, Hang Seng decreased 56.54 points or 0.19% to 29,180.25, Taiwan Weighted dropped 62.41 points or 0.39% to 15,844.00 and Nikkei 225 slipped 275.61 points or 0.95% to 28,654.50.

On the flip side, Straits Times advanced 7.12 points or 0.24% to 3,021.90.