Benchmarks trade higher in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made cautious start of F&O expiry session on Thursday amid weakness in Asian peers. But, soon markets gained momentum and are trading higher with marginal gains in early deals on account of buying in Power, Energy and Oil & Gas stocks. Early cautiousness was due to report that India recorded a massive spike of 46,307 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours out of which, over 31,000 were from Kerala. The country also witnessed 608 deaths, taking the death toll to 436,396. So far, India has recorded 32,557,677 corona cases in total. however, traders took note of report that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said State-run banks will undertake a nation-wide loan outreach programme around October, as the government seeks to stir economic growth through sustained credit push, especially to Covid-hit small and medium businesses, retail and farm sectors, amid fears that bankers have turned risk-averse.

On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading lower ignoring the slightly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, as traders remain spooked amid the continuing spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus in the region and in several countries as well as the strong resurgence of infection rates in the U.S. Back home, sugar industry stocks were in focus as the Centre hiked the minimum price that mills have to pay to sugarcane growers, also known as the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP), by Rs 5 per quintal to Rs 290 a quintal for 2021-22 (October-September) sugar season while ruling out any immediate commensurate increase in the sale price of sugar. In scrip specific development, Kaveri Seed Company gained on share buyback news.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 56026.35, up by 82.14 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 55854.07 and 56039.69. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 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 0.59%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.25%, Energy up by 1.21%, Oil & Gas up by 0.84%, Capital Goods up by 0.84%, Industrials up by 0.63%, while Telecom down by 1.44%, Metal down by 0.37%, Realty down by 0.33%, PSU down by 0.16%, Bankex down by 0.14% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 1.35%, HCL Technologies up by 0.88%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.66%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.59% and TCS up by 0.56%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.88%, Power Grid down by 0.91%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.68%, SBI down by 0.54% and Titan Company down by 0.54% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has requested banks to work with all State governments to push the 'one district, one product' agenda, while advising public-sector banks (PSB) to adopt a nationwide credit outreach programme this year.

Sitharaman said banks have also been requested to have interaction with export promotion agencies, chambers of commerce and industry to understand and address the requirement of exporters on a timely manner. She said between public-sector banks (PSBs), there should be some kind of a simple approach so that exporters are not made to run between one bank to another scouting for a better offer.

Banks should go about to exhibit loan offerings in every district of the country in a bid to enhance the credit demand.A similar outreach programme was undertaken by the PSBs in which some private-sector banks also participated to boost credit offtake in the face of an economic slowdown. She said ‘With changed times, now industries have option of raising funds even from outside the banking sector. Banks themselves are raising funds through various avenues. These new aspects need to be studied to target credit where it is needed.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16660.70, up by 26.05 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 16611.15 and 16663.85. There were 26 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained changed on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC Life Insurance up by 1.52%, Reliance Industries up by 1.24%, HCL Technologies up by 1.10%, Tata Consumer Products up by 1.03% and Wipro up by 0.90%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.90%, Power Grid down by 1.08%, Eicher Motors down by 0.99%, Hindalco down by 0.82% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.77% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 lost 10.07 points or 0.04% to 27,714.73, Straits Times fell 1.82 points or 0.06% to 3,105.67, Hang Seng declined 333.28 points or 1.30% to 25,360.67, Taiwan Weighted dropped 34.85 points or 0.20% to 17,011.01, KOSPI slipped 23.82 points or 0.76% to 3,122.99, Jakarta Composite plunged 47.24 points or 0.77% to 6,066.00 and Shanghai Composite was down by 17.80 points or 0.50% to 3,522.58.