Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended higher on Friday. After cautious start, markets traded in red during early deals, amid uncertainty about U.S. monetary policy and geopolitical tensions over Afghanistan. Adding pessimism, India recorded a spike of 44,558 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours out of which, over 31,000 were from Kerala. But soon, markets turned positive, as traders took some support with private report stating that hiring activity witnessed an overall 4 per cent sequential growth in July and the uptick was mainly spread across metros. It said compared to June, July 2021 saw a notable overall monthly growth of 4 per cent in hiring across all metros.

Key indices remained higher for the most part of the trading session and finally ended the day in green terrain. Domestic sentiments remained positive, as Reserve Bank 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. Some support also came after IT industry body Nasscom said that the new rules for operating drones in the country will usher in new growth opportunities and enable startups and SMEs to create innovative use cases and applications in various sectors like e-commerce, mining and emergency response.

On the global front, 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. Asian markets ended mixed on Friday, after Hong Kong's merchandise exports grew at a softer pace in July. The data from the Census and Statistics Department showed that exports rose 26.9 percent year-on-year in July, after a 33.0 percent increase in June. Imports gained 26.1 percent annually in July, after a 31.9 percent increase in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex ended at 56124.72, up by 175.62 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 55675.87 and 56188.23. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.04%, while Small cap index up by 0.93%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.14%, Basic Materials up by 1.69%, Industrials up by 1.58%, Power up by 1.46% and Metal up by 1.44%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement up by 3.64%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.66%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.17%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.58% and Sun Pharma up by 1.53%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.13%, Infosys down by 1.07%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.70%, Nestle down by 0.54% and HCL Tech. down by 0.42% were the top losers. (Provisional)

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 ended at 16705.20, up by 68.30 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 16565.60 and 16722.05. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 3.54%, Hindalco up by 3.25%, SBI Life Insurance up by 2.80%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.65% and Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.15%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.13%, Infosys down by 1.09%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.80%, Tata Consumer Products down by 0.63% and Nestle down by 0.48% were the top losers. (Provisional)

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.

Asian markets ended mixed on Friday ahead of a long-awaited speech by Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the Fed's annual Jackson Hole for gathering details on how and when the Fed might look to taper its easy monetary stimulus. Meanwhile, news of deadly attacks at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan also pressuring market sentiments. The world's second largest economy China continuing its crackdown on its tech sector by proposing new rules that would ban firms with large amounts of sensitive consumer data from going public in the United States. However, Chinese shares gained after China’s central bank made its biggest weekly cash injection into the banking system since February.