Indian markets maintain upward momentum

Indian equity markets maintained their upward momentum in the afternoon session and continued to trade on positive bias, following gains in Oil & Gas, Metal and Power stocks. Healthy buying was observed in blue-chip stocks like Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance and Tata Steel. Sentiment perked up as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal states that the foreign direct investment into the country is on the rise, jumping to $12.1 billion in May this year. He also said the government is working on a mission mode to achieve exports target of $400 billion in 2021-22. Traders also remain energized with SBI research report Ecowrap penning that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow at around 18.5 per cent with an upward bias in the first quarter of the current financial year. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green boosted by a near-record rise on Wall Street, though the momentum began to fizzle out over worries about the economic fallout from surging coronavirus infections in the region.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 55784.75, up by 228.96 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 55536.84 and 55816.85. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.72%, while Small cap index was up by 0.93%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.61%, Metal up by 1.54%, Power up by 1.29%, PSU up by 1.28% and Utilities was up by 1.20%, while IT down by 0.61%, TECK down by 0.57%, FMCG down by 0.56% and Consumer Durables was down by 0.54% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 8.30%, Bajaj Finance up by 4.10%, Tata Steel up by 2.32%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.11% and SBI was up by 1.55%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 1.26%, Asian Paints down by 0.98%, HCL Tech down by 0.95%, HDFC down by 0.94% and Infosys was down by 0.93% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, IT industry body Nasscom has said that India has the potential to become the world's second-largest cloud talent hub with the combined effort of government bodies, education and skilling organisations and technology providers. It also said India currently ranks third globally with an installed talent pool of 608,000 (FY2021) cloud professionals. By 2025, India would have an estimated 1.4-1.5 million cloud professionals (baseline growth). However, it said with an estimated demand for over 2 million professionals by 2025, India could reach 1.7-1.8 million cloud talent pool with a fairly aggressive skilling roadmap.

It has stated that India's cloud market is estimated to reach $5.6 billion by 2022, a 26 per cent year-on-year growth. With rapid digital acceleration and everything becoming on-demand and need-based, migration to cloud-based services will provide a significant competitive advantage for SMEs and enterprises in the new normal. This is further expected to grow exponentially with accelerated cloud adoption across sectors. Infrastructural agility, flexibility, and resilience on cloud with significantly lower costs, especially post the pandemic, have been the key growth drivers for such a shift. The Indian SaaS (software as a service) startup ecosystem is another driver of cloud demand.

It further said SaaS companies in India employ over 40,000 professionals across job domains, more than any other tech startup segment, Nasscom said. With a baseline growth of 24 per cent CAGR, India's cloud talent pool is expected to grow 2.4X to nearly 1.5 milllion by 2025. However, there is an urgent need to scale talent further -- talent with the right skillsets -- that will help meet this demand. It estimates that with a more aggressive talent building roadmap (30 per cent-plus growth rate), India can increase its cloud talent pool to between 1.7 to 1.8 million and in the process, become world's second largest cloud talent hub. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16562.55, up by 66.10 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 16495.30 and 16585.25. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finserv up by 8.31%, Bajaj Finance up by 4.15%, Hindalco up by 2.81%, Tata Steel up by 2.35% and Tech Mahindra was up by 2.06%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.44%, Nestle down by 1.32%, Asian Paints down by 1.12%, HDFC down by 0.99% and Infosys was down by 0.88% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted strengthened 76.89 points or 0.46% to 16,818.73, KOSPI rose 48.09 points or 1.56% to 3,138.30, Shanghai Composite gained 34.62 points or 1% to 3,511.75, Hang Seng increased 443.01 points or 1.76% to 25,552.60, Nikkei 225 surged 237.86 points or 0.87% to 27,732.10 and Straits Times was up by 19.80 points or 0.64% to 3,107.36.

On the other side, Jakarta Composite was down by 45.97 points or 0.75% to 6,063.86.