Key indices end at record closing highs

Indian equity benchmarks ended at record closing highs on Friday ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech due later in the day. The benchmarks edged lower in morning as 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. However, key indices soon witnessed a swift recovery after the initial fall and traded positive for the rest of the session. Traders took some support as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman discussed with her BRICS counterparts the key areas of cooperation that would be crucial in supporting recovery of the grouping's economies and maintaining macroeconomic stability, while protecting against future uncertainties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some optimism also came with private report stated 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.

Markets maintained upward momentum in afternoon session, taking support from IT industry body Nasscom’s statement 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. Domestic sentiments were 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. Meanwhile, Governor Shaktikanta Das states that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) won't surprise the market with a sudden rate hike and all monetary policy actions would be carefully calibrated. The current inflation trajectory looked transitory. In its August policy review, the RBI kept the key rates unchanged and said the policy stance would remain accommodative as long as was necessary.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mixed on Friday, while European markets were trading lower, as investors fretted over developments in Afghanistan and watched for any potential shift in U.S. Federal Reserve policy. Investors awaited Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the Fed's annual Jackson Hole gathering for details on how and when the U.S. central bank might look to taper its monetary policy. Back home, on the sectoral front, aviation stocks were in focus as India's air safety regulator said it had cleared Boeing Co's 737 MAX aircraft to fly with immediate effect, ending its nearly two-and-a-half-years of regulatory grounding in a key travel market for Boeing. Stocks related to pharma industry too were buzzing as Care Ratings in its latest report has said that the COVID-19 pandemic push will lead to an 11 percent annual growth for the pharma sector over the next two years and help it surpass $60 billion from around $45 billion in FY21.

Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 175.62 points or 0.31% to 56,124.72, while the CNX Nifty was up by 68.30 points or 0.41% to 16,705.20.  

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 56,188.23 and 55,675.87, respectively and there were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.   

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

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% amd Metal up by 1.44%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

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 1.52%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.07%, Indusind Bank down by 1.04%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.80%, Nestle down by 0.54% and HCL Technologies down by 0.42% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has discussed with her BRICS counterparts the key areas of cooperation that would be crucial in supporting recovery of the grouping's economies and maintaining macroeconomic stability, while protecting against future uncertainties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Sitharaman highlighted that BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has been playing and will continue to play a crucial role in dealing with crises such as the pandemic.

A finance ministry statement said that Sitharaman chaired the second meeting of BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) along with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das under the Indian BRICS Chairship. It said during the meeting, the FMCBGs endorsed the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Statement on Global Economic Outlook and Responding to COVID-19 Crisis with an annexure on snapshot of policy experiences of member countries in dealing with the economic impact of the pandemic. Sitharaman remarked that India attaches great significance to presenting this statement before the global community since it unanimously voices the view of BRICS countries on the critical aspects underpinning current international policy conversations on post pandemic recovery.

Besides, it said a 'Technical Report on Social Infrastructure: Financing and Use of Digital Technologies' was also endorsed. This report is an exercise towards collaborative knowledge sharing between BRICS economies on social infrastructure, including on how the governments have leveraged digital technologies to enhance access and improve service delivery, especially in the health and education sectors. The BRICS finance ministers also welcomed the conclusion of negotiations on the text of Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance (CMAA) in customs matters, along with deliberating progress made on other customs related issues.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 16,722.05 and 16,565.60 and there were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.    

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 3.37%, Hindalco up by 3.35%, SBI Life Insurance up by 2.80%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.71% and Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.99%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.17%, Indusind Bank down by 1.13%, Tata Consumer Product down by 0.81%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.77% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.60% were the top losers.

European markets were trading lower; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 0.59 points or 0.01% to 7,124.39, France’s CAC decreased 6.46 points or 0.1% to 6,659.57 and Germany’s DAX decreased 2.02 points or 0.01% to 15,791.60.

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.