Markets extend gains in late afternoon session

The Indian equity benchmarks extended their gains in late afternoon session, with the Sensex and the Nifty gaining above 1150 and 300 points, respectively. Sentiments remained largely positive as Union Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India will be able to overtake China in its engagement with Bangladesh. He said India has been working relentlessly to build strong relations with all its neighbouring countries. He also said India's ability to add more value to the products and services has helped it expand trade ties with countries like Bangladesh. However, he added that India does not hold a grudge against any country for its engagement with anybody else and focuses only on what it can do with that country better. Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that banks will conduct special clearing operations for the annual closure of government accounts on March 31, which is the last day of the current fiscal year.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green as investors await U.S. President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan to be announced on Wednesday which is seen around $3 trillion-$4 trillion. European markets were trading higher on hopes of a vaccine-driven economic recovery, while investors looked past the fallout of a U.S. hedge fund default that hit banking stocks a day earlier.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 50171.87, up by 1163.37 points or 2.37% after trading in a range of 49331.68 and 50181.98. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.71%, while Small cap index was up by 0.80%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 3.73%, TECK up by 3.27%, Metal up by 2.69%, Energy up by 2.11% and Utilities was up by 2.10%, while Realty was down by 0.78% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 4.36%, Power Grid up by 3.94%, HCL Tech up by 3.89%, TCS up by 3.52% and Hindustan Unilever up by 3.46%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.89% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, issuing directions to the banks for smooth clearing operation, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that banks will conduct special clearing operations for the annual closure of government accounts on March 31, which is the last day of the current fiscal year.

With regard to the annual closing of accounts related transactions of the central and state governments, special measures are put in place for 2020-21, the RBI has instructed all the member banks to maintain sufficient balance in their clearing settlement account.

The RBI further noted that to facilitate accounting of all the government transactions for the current financial year 2020-21 by March 31, 2021, it has been decided to conduct special clearing exclusively for government cheques across the three CTS grids on March 31, 2021.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14851.85, up by 344.55 points or 2.38% after trading in a range of 14617.60 and 14856.80. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were UPL up by 6.68%, JSW Steel up by 5.00%, Infosys up by 4.48%, Tata Steel up by 4.28% and Power Grid up by 4.15%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.61%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.48%, SBI Life down by 0.09% and Indian Oil down by 0.06% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Hang Seng increased 239.20 points or 0.84% to 28,577.50, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 78.93 points or 0.48% to 16,554.90, Nikkei 225 surged 48.18 points or 0.16% to 29,432.70, KOSPI rose 33.96 points or 1.12% to 3,070.00, Shanghai Composite gained 21.38 points or 0.62% to 3,456.68 and Straits Times was up by 19.71 points or 0.62% to 3,195.28. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 95.38 points or 1.55% to 6,071.44.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 43.28 points or 0.64% to 6,779.45, France’s CAC increased 39.34 points or 0.65% to 6,054.85 and Germany’s DAX was up by 94.40 points or 0.64% to 14,912.12.