Benchmarks trade flat in late afternoon session

Indian benchmarks traded flat in late afternoon session, with Sensex down by 10.73 points, while Nifty was up by 22.70 points. Traders took support, as finance ministry said economic recovery remains ‘resilient’ with sustained improvement in a majority of high-frequency indicators, including record GST collections and exports, despite a surge in Covid-19 cases in recent weeks. However, investors were worried after Credit rating agency – Care ratings said that Maharashtra’s ‘radical’ lockdown move will have an economic impact of Rs 40,000 crore, with the trade, hotels and transport sector to bear the biggest dent. The rating agency said the loss of economic activity will have a 0.32 per cent impact on the gross value added (GVA) growth at the national level. It revised down its national GDP growth estimate to 10.7 - 10.9 per cent from the 11 - 11.2 per cent given a week ago. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed with a second straight day of records on Wall Street unable to inspire further gains, though analysts remain confident of further advances this year as the world economy reopens. European markets were trading higher as trading resumes after the Easter holiday, with global sentiment boosted by positive economic data in the U.S. and China.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 49148.59, down by 10.73 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 48936.35 and 49582.26. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.84%, while Small cap index was up by 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.16%, Industrials up by 1.07%, Basic Materials up by 0.88%, Metal up by 0.86% and Telecom was up by 0.85%, while Bankex down by 0.66%, Energy down by 0.52%, PSU down by 0.22% and Oil & Gas was down by 0.19% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 3.83%, Sun Pharma up by 1.79%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.52%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.22% and Nestle up by 1.13%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.80%, Indusind Bank down by 1.19%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.94%, ICICI Bank down by 0.83% and HDFC Bank down by 0.82% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid expectations of healthy profitability in 2021-22, following a normal monsoon for the upcoming kharif season, credit rating agency ICRA in its latest report has revised its outlook for the fertiliser sector to positive.

According to the report, additionally, the agri-economy witnessed a strong performance in 2020-21 with healthy farm incomes, and ICRA expects the benefit of the current year to rub off on the next fiscal as well.

Further, the report noted that the credit profile of the fertiliser sector is expected to witness a significant improvement in this new fiscal year, driven by the removal of the subsidy backlog following the pay-out of additional subsidy of Rs 62,602 crore by the government under the Aatmanirbhar 3.0 package.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14660.50, up by 22.70 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 14573.90 and 14779.10. There were 28 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports up by 8.82%, Tata Consumer up by 4.82%, JSW Steel up by 3.94%, Asian Paints up by 3.92% and UPL up by 2.27%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.56%, Indusind Bank down by 1.05%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.01%, Grasim Industries down by 0.99% and ICICI Bank down by 0.83% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Hang Seng increased 560.39 points or 1.97% to 28,938.74, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 168.59 points or 1.02% to 16,739.87, Jakarta Composite soared 32.48 points or 0.54% to 6,002.77 and KOSPI was up by 6.25 points or 0.2% to 3,127.08. On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 0.94 points or 0.03% to 3,208.80, Shanghai Composite declined 1.42 points or 0.04% to 3,482.97 and Nikkei 225 was down by 392.62 points or 1.3% to 29,696.63.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 79.70 points or 1.18% to 6,817.00, France’s CAC increased 45.96 points or 0.75% to 6,148.92 and Germany’s DAX was up by 165.24 points or 1.09% to 15,272.41.