Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended near intraday high points on Thursday’s trading session. Indices made gap-down opening of the day, as worries over the second wave of COVID-19 in the country and tightening of restrictions in various states weighted down on the markets. India reported 315,802 fresh coronavirus infections on Thursday, taking the cumulative caseload to 15,924,806. Some worries came after Care Ratings revised down its forecast for GDP growth to 10.2 per cent in 2021-22 from earlier projection of 10.7-10.9 per cent, with economic activities getting affected across the country due to curbs imposed by states amid surge in COVID-19 cases.

Markets remained in red during the first half of the session, as domestic rating agency ICRA has cut its 2021-22 GDP growth estimate by 0.5 per cent on the upper end. The agency now expects the economy to grow 10-10.5 per cent in 2021-22, against the 10-11 per cent estimated earlier. Starting with Maharashtra, a slew of other pockets in the country like Delhi have been taking to localised lockdowns to arrest the climbing COVID-19 cases, which derails economic activity. Besides, with COVID-19 cases surging across the country, bank unions have requested industry body IBA for restriction in services and reduction in public dealing time to around 3 hours per day till the situation improves to protect bank employees from the coronavirus infection.

But, markets turned positive in the second half of the session to end higher. Support came in as Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan said the country's exports are reviving and the shipments are expected to be in the solid positive territory in this financial year. He said that exports recorded a significant contraction in April last year but gradually things started improving and the shipments have entered the positive territory. Besides, India posted an impressive growth in exports of agriculture and allied products in FY21, with buoyant shipments of a host of commodities including non-basmati rice, wheat, soyameal, spices, sugar, cotton, fresh vegetables, processed vegetables and alcoholic beverages, despite the pandemic and the overall exports slump.

On the global front, European markets were trading higher after stumbling earlier in the week, as a set of strong earnings reports brightened sentiment ahead of the European Central Bank's policy decision. Asian markets ended mostly higher on Thursday, after S&P Global Ratings maintained Japan's sovereign ratings with 'stable' outlook. The rating was affirmed at 'A+' citing the country's exceptional external position, prosperous and diversified economy, political stability, and savings-rich financial system. Nonetheless, Japan has very weak public finances. In the next one to two fiscal years, the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will put additional burden on fiscal performance and lead to a significant increase in government indebtedness, the agency observed.

The BSE Sensex ended at 48080.67, up by 374.87 points or 0.79% after trading in a range of 47204.50 and 48143.16. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.28%, while Small cap index was up by 0.59%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.14%, Metal up by 1.86%, Realty up by 1.40%, PSU up by 0.89% and Basic Materials up by 0.88%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.51%, FMCG down by 0.60%, IT down by 0.16%, Consumer Disc down by 0.14% and TECK down by 0.09% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 3.60%, HDFC up by 2.67%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.30%, HDFC Bank up by 2.25% and SBI up by 2.12%. On the flip side, Titan Co down by 2.75%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.81%, Asian Paints down by 1.80%, Nestle down by 1.80% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.61% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, lauding the performance of Exporters, for doing the nation proud in such difficult times through their resilience and hardwork, Union Minister of Railways, Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, and Food & Public Distribution Piyush Goyal has said that during 2020-21, the Country’s cumulative value of overall exports declined by just 7% compared to the previous year, despite disruptions, uncertainty, lockdowns, gradual unlockdowns, supply chain difficulties, labour issues, and order cancellations in the Covid year.

Union Minister said that under the circumstances, the performance of the sector was really superlative. He said that trade data for March 2021 reflects the build-up of a strong recovery in exports, as the Merchandise exports in March 2021 grew by 60.29% as compared to March 2020. Goyal further said that in the first two weeks of this month also, the performance has been very good.

The Minister said that the government will go all out to support the exporters. He said that many of their issues, falling within the ambit of the Ministry, would be resolved in a time-bound manner. Besides, Goyal said that most of the sectors have larger export potential, which need to be identified and harnessed. He called upon the Exporters to strive to attain ambitious growth of more than 25% to reach US$ 400 billion merchandise exports during current year.

The CNX Nifty ended at 14406.15, up by 109.75 points or 0.77% after trading in a range of 14151.40 and 14424.75. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 3.60%, Wipro up by 3.52%, JSW Steel up by 3.25%, Tata Steel up by 3.06% and HDFC up by 2.64%. On the flip side, Titan Co down by 2.76%, Shree Cement down by 2.72%, Tata Consumer Products down by 2.15%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.00% and Nestle down by 1.79% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 24.24 points or 0.35% to 6,919.53, France’s CAC increased 51.52 points or 0.83% to 6,262.07 and Germany’s DAX was up by 71.79 points or 0.47% to 15,267.76.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Thursday, supported by firm cues from Wall Street overnight. Although, investors are remained cautious amid continuing surge in corona-virus cases along with possible lockdowns in major cities in Japan, capped further gains. Japan reported nationwide daily infections of topped 5000 for the first time in three months. The Japanese government is considering issuing fresh corona-virus state of emergency in Tokyo and three western prefectures for a period from Sunday to May 11. Chinese shares ended lower as Sino-US tensions dampened the market sentiment, while robust Chinese inflation data also raised investor concerns over policy tightening.