Sensex, Nifty hold notable gains in late morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks held notable gains in late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty trading higher. Positive cues from other Asian markets helped key indices to trade in green. Domestic sentiments were positive, amid report that with the world's worst outbreak of COVID pandemic stalling a nascent economic recovery, the government has begun assessing the impact of the second wave of infections on different sectors and may look at providing support at an appropriate time to segments requiring fiscal help. Besides, the Centre advised states and UTs to plan for scaling up vaccination coverage through available stocks and anticipated supplies till the end of June, while private hospitals were advised not to allow offline vaccine registration as all registrations should be online.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after Indonesia's central bank again left its key interest rates unchanged on Tuesday, citing the improving economic outlook and the rupiah stability. The board of governors decided to hold the BI 7-Day reverse repo rate at 3.50 percent. The previous change in the rate was a quarter-point reduction in February. The deposit facility rate was maintained at 2.75 percent and lending facility rates at 4.25 percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 50927.99, up by 290.46 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 50620.45 and 50990.87. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.31%, while Small cap index was up by 0.90%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.71%, IT up by 1.08%, TECK up by 0.99%, Consumer discretionary up by 0.81% and Industrials up by 0.80%, while Metal down by 1.36%, Power down by 1.10%, Utilities down by 0.95%, Basic Materials down by 0.01% and Oil & Gas down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 2.90%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.19%, Titan Co up by 1.58%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.52% and Infosys up by 1.26%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 2.00%, Nestle down by 0.76%, ONGC down by 0.26%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.26% and NTPC down by 0.18% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, industry chamber -- Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has said healthy flow of foreign direct investments (FDI) into the country corroborates India’s status as a preferred investment destination among global investors. FDI into the country grew 19 per cent to $59.64 billion during 2020-21.

Total FDI including equity, re-invested earnings and capital, rose 10 per cent to the highest ever at $ 81.72 billion during the last fiscal year. It said ‘Despite a very challenging backdrop to the year, the strong performance by FDI flows corroborates India’s status as a preferred investment destination among global investors’.

It added that the government’s continuous thrust to keep the reforms’ momentum intact by delineating significant policy measures last year in the areas of liberalizing FDI norms in many more sectors, streamlining ease of doing business reforms, among others has reinforced the faith of global investors in India’s growth story. It said ‘This will certainly assist in a swift bounce back of the economy from a pandemic-induced slowdown we saw in the last fiscal year’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15291.00, up by 82.55 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 15194.95 and 15304.75. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim Industries up by 3.15%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.04%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.46%, Titan Co up by 1.63% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.63%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 2.02%, Tata Steel down by 1.90%, JSW Steel down by 1.88%, Hindalco down by 1.09% and Nestle down by 0.66% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 95.23 points or 0.33% to 28,649.21, Shanghai Composite gained 10.34 points or 0.29% to 3,591.68 and Hang Seng increased 206.32 points or 0.71% to 29,117.18. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted dropped 2.88 points or 0.02% to 16,592.79 and KOSPI fell 2.99 points or 0.09% to 3,168.33.