Markets trade higher with notable gains in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made positive start on Wednesday tracking gains in global peers. Markets are trading higher with notable gains in early deals on account of buying in Metal, Oil & Gas and Utilities counters. Positive comments by the World Health Organisation (WHO) chief scientist on the Covid-19 situation in India result in a relief rally on the bourses. He said coronavirus in India may be entering some kind of stage of endemicity where there is low or moderate level of transmission going on. Some support came in as Minister of State of Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel said India is likely to record exports worth $46 billion to the ASEAN region. She noted that as one of the largest destinations for Indian exports, the Association of South East Asian Nations will be an important region for India in meeting the global export target of $400 billion in financial year 2021-22. Additionally, asserting that people will get some relief in the coming months, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said the government is very sensitive to the issue of rise in fuel prices. Meanwhile, India recorded a massive spike of 51,016 new Covid-19 cases and 737 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking its tally to 32,511,370 and the death toll to 435,788.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly higher following the broadly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, as another rally in crude oil prices, positive U.S. vaccination news and easing worries about an imminent tapering of stimulus by the US Federal Reserve raised hopes the global economy will recover faster than expected. Back home, Oil & gas sector stocks were in focus as India's crude oil production continued its declining trend, falling by over 3 per cent in July as state-owned ONGC produced less than the target. In scrip specific development, Bharti Airtel remained in limelight as the Supreme Court has granted relief to Airtel and has restrained DoT from encashing Airtel’s Bank Guarantees.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 56112.28, up by 153.30 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 56032.65 and 56188.49. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.62%, while Small cap index was up by 1.00%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.45%, Oil & Gas up by 1.31%, Utilities up by 1.19%, Power up by 1.19%, Industrials up by 0.97%, while Healthcare down by 0.08%, Telecom down by 0.02% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.05%, ITC up by 0.92%, NTPC up by 0.92%, Nestle up by 0.82% and Indusind Bank up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 0.95%, HCL Technologies down by 0.79%, Asian Paints down by 0.78%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.73% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.52% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Chief financial advisor (CEA) Krishnamurthy V Subramanian has said that India is well-poised to climate the ripple impact of taper tantrum if the US Federal Reserve begins to cut back its $120-billion-a-month quantitative easing later this year. He stated in contrast to within the aftermath of the 2008-09 international monetary disaster, the Indian economic system is on a lot stronger footing to soak up any exterior shock, due to the adoption of a even handed mixture of each demand and supply-side measures following the Covid-19 outbreak.

These steps will assist maintain inflation under 6% within the coming months, rein in present account deficit (CAD) and forestall any spike in fiscal deficit (from the budgetted stage of 6.8% of GDP in FY22). He exuded confidence that the federal government’s elevated market borrowing plan for a second straight year will go on easily.

Besides, talking about the proposal to list certain categories of government securities on global bond indices in FY22, Subramanian said the plan is still on and the revenue department is working on a couple of issues on this front. Overseas players were apprehensive about the stability of India’s tax regime, thanks to damaging steps like the retrospective tax amendment in 2012. But, he added the fear has been put to rest now after the current government recently junked this amendment.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16682.95, up by 58.35 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 16646.65 and 16699.70. There were 34 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 2.64%, Tata Motors up by 2.52%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 2.51%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 2.22% and ONGC up by 1.33%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 0.93%, HCL Technologies down by 0.87%, Asian Paints down by 0.81%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.67% and Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.48% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Straits Times rose 1.87 points or 0.06% to 3,109.49, Taiwan Weighted surged 167.20 points or 0.99% to 16,985.93, Jakarta Composite added 20.15 points or 0.33% to 6,109.65 and Shanghai Composite was up by 12.02 points or 0.34% to 3,526.49. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 fell 34.12 points or 0.12% to 27,697.98, Hang Seng declined 100.93 points or 0.39% to 25,626.99 and KOSPI lost 10.10 points or 0.32% to 3,128.20.