Bourses continue to trade higher in morning deals

Domestic equity bourses logged fresh record highs and were trading nearly one percent in Tuesday's morning deals, tracking gains in Asian peers. The rise was led by broad-based buying across sectors with Auto, Industrials, Capital Goods and Power stocks adding the most. Traders took some encouragement with the survey conducted by Ficci showed that with states easing lockdown curbs due to declining number of COVID-19 cases, there are immediate indications of improvement in economic activity as companies are hopeful of better performance in the next 6 to 12 months. Traders also took a note of PHDCCI President Sanjay Aggarwal’s statement that calibrated measures are needed to support the country's economic recovery and to diminish the daunting impact caused by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on trade and industry. He also pitched for doing away with the customs duties on the imports of primary raw materials for industrial use for at least the current fiscal year and imposing export duties on various primary commodities, which are showing huge price increases - rising 50 per cent over the last fiscal.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green as concerns about the pace of expected US Federal Reserve monetary tightening eased, while oil prices pushed to new two-year highs above $75 on demand optimism. Back home, on the sectoral front, there was some reaction in cement industry stocks with a private report stating that pandemic-hit FY21 has turned out to be a good year for the big cement companies, as their net profits surged and market position strengthened.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 53011.72, up by 437.26 points or 0.83% after trading in a range of 52800.82 and 53057.11. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.97%, while Small cap index was up by 1.38%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.81%, Industrials up by 1.68%, Capital Goods up by 1.66%, Power up by 1.61% and Oil & Gas up by 1.38%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 4.11%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.06%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.53%, ICICI Bank up by 1.40% and TCS up by 1.34%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 0.60%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.40%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.39%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.31% and Asian Paints down by 0.25% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, PHDCCI President Sanjay Aggarwal has said that calibrated measures are needed to support the country's economic recovery and to diminish the daunting impact caused by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on trade and industry. He also pitched for doing away with the customs duties on the imports of primary raw materials for industrial use for at least the current fiscal year and imposing export duties on various primary commodities, which are showing huge price increases - rising 50 per cent over the last fiscal.

Aggarwal said that trade and industry have to be rejuvenated for achieving a high economic growth trajectory in 2021-22. There is a need to re-fuel household consumption to enhance demand in the economy as it will have an accelerated effect on the expansion of capital investments in the country.

He further said that frontloading the National Infrastructure Pipeline expenditure would provide a much-needed multiplier effect to create aggregate demand in the economy and strengthen the economic recovery. He also stated that government/ PSU payments must not be delayed due to Work From Home issues or shortage of funds as these are crucial to maintain the working capital cycle.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15880.45, up by 133.95 points or 0.85% after trading in a range of 15812.45 and 15895.75. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.97%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 3.05%, UPL up by 2.69%, Tata Motors up by 2.45% and Shree Cement up by 2.15%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 0.92%, Nestle down by 0.73%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.41%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.40% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.39% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 2.47 points or 0.01% to 28,491.47, KOSPI rose 24.02 points or 0.74% to 3,264.81, Shanghai Composite gained 27.45 points or 0.78% to 3,556.63, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 76.56 points or 0.45% to 17,139.54, Jakarta Composite soared 90.70 points or 1.51% to 6,086.95 and Nikkei 225 surged 824.45 points or 2.94% to 28,835.38.

On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 5.32 points or 0.17% to 3,112.55.