Benchmarks trim gains in late afternoon session

The Indian benchmarks trimmed some of their gains in late afternoon session, but continued to trade in green territory. Among heavy-weights Bajaj Finserv, Asian Paints and Titan Company exhibited a smart performance. Some support came, as International Monetary Fund has said that India's economy is on the path of gradual recovery, real GDP growth, return to positive territory in fourth quarter of 2020. And that's for the first time actually since the start of the pandemic and it's supported by a pickup in gross, fixed capital formation. However, upside was capped as traders remained cautious on report that India has registered 59,069 fresh cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours (highest daily cases since October 18, 2020), taking to tally to 11,846,082, according to Worldometer. The death toll from the deadly infection jumped to 160,983. India has the 7th highest number of active cases globally. On the sectoral front, e-commerce sector remained in focus, as section of e-commerce companies has urged the government to maintain stability in policy, emphasising that their businesses have been structured in line with the current regulations.

On the global front, all Asian markets were trading higher capping another painful week for investors as a forecast-beating US jobs report and Joe Biden’s pledge to double his vaccination target soothed recent worries over rising infections and new lockdowns in Europe. European markets were trading higher despite an increase in COVID-19 cases across the continent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 49046.53, up by 606.41 points or 1.25% after trading in a range of 48699.91 and 49234.66. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.84%, while Small cap index was up by 1.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.91%, Consumer Durables up by 2.27%, Telecom up by 2.27%, Basic Materials up by 2.12% and Consumer Discretionary was up by 1.93%, while there were no losers on sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 4.71%, Asian Paints up by 4.09%, Titan Company up by 3.56%, Hindustan Unilever up by 3.40% and HDFC up by 2.73%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.55% and ONGC down by 0.29% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to strengthen the Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Digitally empowered India’, Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman has launched Central Scrutiny Centre (CSC) and Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority’s (IEPFA) Mobile App - two tech-enabled initiatives by Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Sitharaman said that Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of India in order to ensure that the Government's services are made available to citizens electronically by making the country digitally empowered in the field of technology. She further said that these two initiatives would create a new corporate and investor friendly ecosystem. Going forward, MCA would bring in more tech-enabled services for ease of doing business and ease of living for the people.

The Finance Minister also said that the Ministry of Corporate affairs has been engaged in a continuous journey of digitisation, automation and improvement, for the good of the society, the corporates, the economy and the professionals.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14525.20, up by 200.30 points or 1.40% after trading in a range of 14414.25 and 14572.90. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 6.86%, Tata Motors up by 4.83%, Bajaj Finserv up by 4.70%, Hindalco up by 4.24% and Asian Paints up by 4.15%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.50%, UPL down by 0.73%, ONGC down by 0.44% and ITC down by 0.07% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher, Nikkei 225 surged 446.82 points or 1.56% to 29,176.70, Hang Seng increased 436.82 points or 1.57% to 28,336.43, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 245.74 points or 1.53% to 16,305.88, Jakarta Composite soared 72.68 points or 1.19% to 6,195.56, Shanghai Composite gained 54.74 points or 1.63% to 3,418.33, KOSPI rose 32.68 points or 1.09% to 3,041.01 and Straits Times was up by 19.32 points or 0.61% to 3,161.03.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 53.00 points or 0.79% to 6,727.83, France’s CAC increased 39.30 points or 0.66% to 5,991.71 and Germany’s DAX was up by 139.04 points or 0.95% to 14,760.40.