Bourses continue to show positive trend in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to show a positive trend in late afternoon session. Capital Goods, Industrials and Basic Materials counters were on the priority list of the buyers. Traders took support after private report stated that India and Australia are looking at announcing an early harvest trade deal by December. An early harvest agreement will be the way forward for an early conclusion of a bilateral Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between both countries. Till now, there have been three rounds of talks between the chief trade negotiators of both nations. Sector wise, auto sector remained in focus, as Credit ratings agency ICRA in its latest report has said that the auto components industry is expected to post 20-23 per cent revenue growth during this fiscal (FY22), aided by strong exports and recovery in the domestic market, with all segments (passenger vehicles, two-vehicles and commercial vehicles) likely to report healthy double-digit growth in 2021-22.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as investors awaited more guidance on the U.S. Federal Reserve's easing plans. European markets were trading mostly in green ahead of U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell's speech that could offer hints on the timeline for slowing of its bond purchases programme.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 56131.56, up by 182.46 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 55675.87 and 56171.84. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.92%, while Small cap index was up by 0.79%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.21%, Industrials up by 1.51%, Basic Materials up by 1.47%, Power up by 1.46% and Telecom was up by 1.43%, while Energy was down by 0.08% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement up by 3.81%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.80%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.92%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.82% and TCS up by 1.46%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.07%, Infosys down by 0.65%, ICICI Bank down by 0.63%, Nestle down by 0.41% and Reliance Industries down by 0.39% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a big relief, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the scheme for encouraging deployment of Point of Sale (PoS) infrastructure to street vendors covered under the PM SVANidhi programme in tier 1 and 2 centres.

The Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) scheme, with a corpus of Rs 345 crore, envisages creating 30 lakh new touch points every year for digital payments in tier-3 to tier-6 centres. The scheme, operationalised in January this year, has now been extended to select street vendors in tier 1 and 2 centres.

Launched in June 2020, the PM Street Vendor's AatmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme is aimed at helping street vendors impacted by the coronavirus pandemic to resume their livelihood activities.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16696.30, up by 59.40 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 16565.60 and 16712.60. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 3.84%, SBI Life up by 3.19%, Hindalco up by 3.09%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.77% and Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.89%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.11%, Infosys down by 0.74%, ICICI Bank down by 0.66%, Tata Consumer down by 0.63% and Eicher Motors down by 0.48% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Nikkei 225 slipped 101.15 points or 0.36% to 27,641.14, Straits Times trembled 29.70 points or 0.96% to 3,079.72, Jakarta Composite lost 16.71 points or 0.28% to 6,041.37 and Hang Seng was down by 7.80 points or 0.03% to 25,407.89. On the flip side, KOSPI rose 5.37 points or 0.17% to 3,133.90, Shanghai Composite gained 20.50 points or 0.59% to 3,522.16 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 142.97 points or 0.84% to 17,209.93.

European markets were trading mostly in green, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 8.63 points or 0.12% to 7,133.61and Germany’s DAX was up by 3.72 points or 0.02% to 15,797.34. On the flip side, France’s CAC was down by 1.25 points or 0.02% to 6,664.78.