Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended Thursday’s trading session with sharp losses. Indices made a positive start, as former chief of Shanghai-based New Development Bank, K V Kamath expressed optimism that India's sovereign rating would go up on the back of efforts being taken by the government to push economic reforms. Traders were positive, as the Income Tax Department said it has issued over Rs 2.04 lakh crore worth refunds to more than 2.09 crore taxpayers so far this fiscal year. Of this, personal income tax refunds of Rs 73,607 crore have been issued to over 2.06 crore taxpayers and corporate tax refunds of over Rs 1.31 lakh crore issued in 2.21 lakh cases.

Markets remained higher during the first half of the trading session, after a parliamentary panel has suggested to the Department of Commerce to take appropriate measures to check further deterioration in exports and crucial imports for preventing more disruptions in the supply chains. Traders were seen taking a note of report stating that Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said India and the UAE discussed ways to strengthen energy cooperation, despite the nation asking its refiners to reduce their reliance on Middle Eastern oil.

But, in the second half of the trading session, key indices turned negative, amid a joined survey carried out by FICCI-IBA has stated that asset quality of banks, which saw some improvement in the second half of 2020, is likely to worsen during the first six months of 2021. The survey was conducted on 20 banks, including public sector, private sector and foreign banks, representing about 59 per cent of the banking industry, as classified by asset size.  Some worries came with the private report that India's central bank may have to delay the start of monetary policy normalisation by three months amid rising COVID-19 cases, but barring the return of stringent lockdowns there is no significant threat to the economy's recovery.

On the global front, European markets were trading higher in the first opportunity to react to the latest Federal Reserve decision, with the big story being the sell-off in bonds the central bank did nothing to quell. Asian markets ended higher on Thursday, after South Korea's unemployment rate fell in February. The data from Statistics Korea showed that the jobless rate rose to a seasonally adjusted 4.0 percent in February from 5.4 percent in January. In the same month last year, the unemployment rate was 3.4 percent. On an unadjusted basis, the unemployment rate decreased to 4.9 percent in February from 5.7 percent in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex ended at 49216.52, down by 585.10 points or 1.17% after trading in a range of 48962.36 and 50296.35. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.33%, while Small cap index was down by 1.58%. (Provisional)

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 0.54% and FMCG up by 0.16%, while IT down by 3.02%, TECK down by 2.54%, Energy down by 1.87%, Healthcare down by 1.83% and Realty down by 1.65% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 3.25%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.46%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.03%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.72% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.60%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 3.97%, Infosys down by 3.67%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 3.34%, TCS down by 2.44% and Tech Mahindra down by 2.36% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, for the overall execution and monitoring of the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme, the government has constituted an experts advisory committee. The committee will evaluate and select incubators for allotment of funds under the scheme, monitor progress and take all necessary measures for efficient utilisation of funds towards fulfilment of objectives of the scheme.

The committee would be chaired by H K Mittal from the Department of Science and Technology. The other representatives would include members from DPIIT, department of biotechnology, science and technology, electronics and IT, Niti Aayog, and expert members from startup ecosystem.

Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) has been approved for the period of next four years starting from 2021-22. It will be implemented with effect from April 1, 2021. Rs 945 crore corpus will be divided over the next four years for providing seed funding to eligible startups through eligible incubators across India. The scheme is expected to support about 3,600 startups.

The CNX Nifty ended at 14557.85, down by 163.45 points or 1.11% after trading in a range of 14478.60 and 14875.20. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were ITC up by 3.35%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.66%, Hindalco up by 1.65%, Grasim Industries up by 1.51% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.04%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 4.02%, Infosys down by 3.60%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 3.29%, Divis Lab down by 3.12% and Hero MotoCorp down by 2.61% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 2.16 points or 0.03% to 6,764.83, France’s CAC increased 8.38 points or 0.14% to 6,063.20 and Germany’s DAX was up by 123.60 points or 0.85% to 14,720.21.

Asian markets ended higher on Thursday, tracking gains in US stocks overnight after the US Federal Reserve committed to maintaining accommodative monetary policy and projected the US economy to grow 6.5 percent this year as the corona-virus crisis eases. Meanwhile, inflation is expected to reach 2.4 percent this year above the central bank’s 2 percent target, US Federal Chairman Jerome Powell called it’s a temporary surge that will not change the Fed’s pledge to keep its benchmark overnight interest rate near zero as part of an effort to ensure the economic wounds from the corona-virus pandemic are fully healed. Japanese shares ended sharply higher, while the Japanese Yen perked up after reports suggested that the Bank of Japan will agree to allow yields to trade in a wider band when it ends a two-day policy meeting on Friday.