Indian markets maintain upward momentum

Indian equity markets maintained their upward momentum in noon session, following gains in Realty, Basic Materials and Metal stocks. Healthy buying was observed in blue-chip stocks like Ultratech Cement, ICICI Bank and SBI. Sentiments were upbeat as despite the worse condition due to COVID-19 which impacted economic growth, the net direct tax collection has doubled to over Rs 2.49 lakh crore so far this fiscal, mainly driven by personal income tax and advance tax mop up. Investors also cheered the report stating that Sebi and stock exchanges have announced further safeguards to protect small investors and curb price manipulation in shares of companies under insolvency resolution process. NSE and BSE said they have initiated several steps to curtail information asymmetry and confusion in the market when it comes to listed companies undergoing Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) as per the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). On the global front, all Asian markets were trading firm despite jitters about the spread of the coronavirus’s delta variant as investors looked ahead to U.S. earnings reports.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52617.19, up by 231.00 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 52568.92 and 52700.51. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.75%, while Small cap index was up by 1.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.90%, Basic Materials up by 1.35%, Metal up by 0.92%, Bankex up by 0.89% and Consumer Discretionary was up by 0.81%, while Telecom down by 0.23% and Power was down by 0.20% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement up by 2.78%, ICICI Bank up by 1.63%, SBI up by 1.24%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.15% and Reliance Industries was up by 1.08%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 0.77%, HDFC Bank down by 0.38%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.36%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.33% and Infosys was down by 0.18% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, ICRA Ratings in its latest report has said that despite the impact of the second wave of COVID-19, securitisation volumes by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs) surged 2.3 times to Rs 17,500 crore of their loan assets in the first quarter of 2021-22. During the first quarter of 2020-21, the volumes had significantly fallen to Rs 7,500 crore due to the pandemic and the resultant nationwide lockdown in March 2020.

The agency expects securitisation volumes for NBFCs and HFCs in FY2022 could be more than Rs 1.2 lakh crore, of which the majority would be in H2 FY2022 if there is no resurgence of COVID infections in the country. It also said there was gradual ease in lockdowns in June across most geographies and gradual improvement in collection efficiencies of NBFCs thereby gives investors the necessary comfort to participate in securitization.

According to the report, another factor that supported the volumes was that unlike Q1 FY2021, when the microfinance sector was almost absent from the securitisation market, the segment has been able to restrict the decline in collections and thus been able to find investor interest in the securitisation of its assets.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15765.70, up by 75.90 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 15746.55 and 15789.20. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 2.80%, Shree Cement up by 2.77%, JSW Steel up by 2.35%, Tata Consumer Products up by 2.03% and ICICI Bank was up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 0.81%, BPCL down by 0.78%, Adani Ports down by 0.67%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.43% and Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.42% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading firm; KOSPI rose 28.52 points or 0.89% to 3,246.47, Nikkei 225 surged 628.60 points or 2.25% to 28,569.02, Shanghai Composite gained 24.26 points or 0.69% to 3,548.35, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 152.85 points or 0.87% to 17,814.33, Straits Times advanced 8.94 points or 0.29% to 3,140.34, Hang Seng increased 165.71 points or 0.61% to 27,510.25 and Jakarta Composite was up by 54.44 points or 0.9% to 6,094.28.