Markets trade firm in early deals; Sensex reclaims 50K mark

Indian equity benchmarks extended their previous session’s gains with positive opening on Thursday tracking gains in Asian peers. markets are trading firm with gains of over 0.60% each on account of buying in most of the sector indices led by Metal, Basic Materials and Energy. Strong earnings reports from top Indian companies supported the sentiment on the Street. Traders took note of report that the Finance Ministry has waived permissions required from any government departments for customs clearance of COVID-related relief material imported by the Indian Red Cross Society. However, massive surge in coronavirus cases capped gains in the markets. India reported a massive surge of 379,459 cases and 3,647 deaths, thus marking the biggest single-day spike ever, Worldometer showed. Also, there was some cautiousness with ICRA’s report that the ongoing second wave of COVID-19 will dampen the pace of recovery for corporate India and the contact-intensive sectors will be hit the most. However, the impact of the second wave on many sectors is set to be lower than the first because the lockdowns are less widespread and stringent as of now as against the strong nationwide lockdown last year which brought all economic activities to a grinding halt.

Global cues remained supportive with all the Asian markets trading higher after the Fed announced its widely expected decision to maintain ultra-easy policy. The Fed left interest rates and asset purchases unchanged even as the central bank upgraded its assessment of the U.S. economy. The Japanese stock market is closed for Showa Day on Thursday. Though, the cues overnight from Wall Street were weak. Back home, Auto industry stocks were in focus as the NITI Aayog recommended the government provide subsidy for electric vehicle purchase over and above the existing subsidy scheme for electric vehicle adoption under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing the Electric Vehicles scheme besides including EVs under priority lending sector. In scrip specific development, Bajaj Finserv rallied after posting a four-fold jump in its March quarter consolidated net profit.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 50041.16, up by 307.32 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 50025.81 and 50375.77. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.36%, while Small cap index was up by 0.52%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.57%, Basic Materials up by 1.47%, Energy up by 0.95%, Oil & Gas up by 0.68%, Consumer Durables up by 0.62%, while Telecom down by 0.26%, Healthcare down by 0.08% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 3.65%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.98%, Indusind Bank up by 1.68%, Axis Bank up by 1.62% and ONGC up by 1.35%. On the flip side, HCL Technologies down by 0.49%, ICICI Bank down by 0.45%, Sun Pharma down by 0.24%, Nestle down by 0.13% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.02% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, a domestic rating agency -- Icra in its latest has said the ongoing second wave of COVID-19 will dampen the pace of recovery for corporate India and the contact-intensive sectors will be hit the most. However, it stated the impact of the second wave on many sectors is set to be lower than the first because the lockdowns are less widespread and stringent as of now as against the strong nationwide lockdown last year which brought all economic activities to a grinding halt.

The country has been reporting alarmingly high cases of infections at over 3 lakh additions and 2,000 fatalities a day, for the last few days. Allegations of under-reporting by some states are also rampant, and the country has had to depend on major world powers for help. The rating agency said it expects only 4 per cent of its rated portfolio to be severely impacted as a result of the second wave as against 17 per cent in the first wave last year.

The agency marked aviation, hotels, restaurants and tourism, media and entertainment-exhibitors, microfinance institutions, retail real estate, and retail to be at high risk from the second pandemic wave. The entities in the riskier categories are likely to continue to face negative rating pressures compared to the average for the entire ICRA portfolio, as seen in the last fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14957.60, up by 93.05 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 14947.80 and 15044.35. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 4.43%, Bajaj Finance up by 3.39%, Hindalco up by 3.09%, JSW Steel up by 3.05% and Bajaj Finserv up by 2.78%. On the flip side, Tata Consumer Products down by 0.76%, SBI Life Insurance down by 0.64%, Cipla down by 0.61%, ICICI Bank down by 0.51% and HCL Technologies down by 0.49% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; Straits Times added 3.39 points or 0.11% to 3,222.95, Hang Seng surged 180.06 points or 0.62% to 29,251.40, Taiwan Weighted gained 5.90 points or 0.03% to 17,573.43, KOSPI increased 7.20 points or 0.23% to 3,188.67, Jakarta Composite jumped 31.48 points or 0.53% to 6,005.96 and Shanghai Composite was up by 6.03 points or 0.17% to 3,463.10.