Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended at record closing highs on Wednesday. Markets made positive start of the trading day, as India's exports rose by 45.76 per cent to USD 33.28 billion in August, as against USD 22.83 billion in the same month last year, according to commerce ministry data released. Further, some support also came in on report that the Finance Ministry has permitted 11 states to borrow an additional amount of Rs 15,721 crore after these states achieved the capital expenditure target set for the June quarter. These states are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.

Positive trade continued over the Dalal Street during trading session, as sentiments remained up-beat with Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways’ statement that the bilateral trade between India and the US has grown from $16 billion to $149 billion in the last two decades. He said the trade is projected to reach $500 billion by 2025. Some support also came with private report stating that India remains an attractive destination for foreign direct investments (FDI) on account of healthy prospects of economic growth and its skilled workforce. Besides, NRIDA is set to pilot smart solutions backed by digital innovations to modernize existing performance monitoring mechanisms and improve the service delivery capacity of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), a flagship program of the Government of India.

Key indices added more gains in the second half of the trading session and ended with strong gains. Traders remained positive, after Textiles Ministry Additional Secretary Vijoy Kumar Singh has said that the idea of Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, announced for textiles by the government, was to create huge employment opportunities and extend support to companies that were interested in scaling up business in the sector. He said the advantage of PLI Scheme is to invest in those projects, which are covered under the scheme for the products, and create huge employment and achieve production turnover for companies.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in red as worries about a slowing Chinese economy, declines in travel and leisure stocks and soaring UK inflation dampened sentiment in early trading. Asian markets settled mostly lower on Wednesday, even after the total value of core machine orders in Japan was up a seasonally adjusted 0.9 percent in July, the Cabinet Office said on Wednesday - coming in at 859.7 billion yen. That missed expectations for an increase of 3.1 percent following the 1.5 percent contraction in June. On a yearly basis, core machine orders gained 11.1 percent - again shy of forecasts for an increase of 15.7 percent following the 18.6 percent increase in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex ended at 58723.20, up by 476.11 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 58272.82 and 58777.06. 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 0.65%, while Small cap index up by 0.86%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 3.45%, Utilities up by 2.29%, PSU up by 2.05%, Power up by 2.01% and TECK up by 1.81%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 7.16%, Bharti Airtel up by 4.53%, HCL Tech. up by 2.86%, Titan Co up by 2.83% and SBI up by 2.49%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.38%, Asian Paints down by 0.31%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.27%, Nestle down by 0.16% and Sun Pharma Inds. down by 0.15% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in order to review the progress of capital expenditure (CAPEX) by Steel CPSEs, the Union Steel Minister Ram Chandra Prasad Singh has held a meeting. The Steel CPSEs were directed to step up the pace of their CAPEX and to also streamline the processes for timely completion of projects.

During the detailed review of projects under implementation, the Union Minister also emphasized the importance of capital expenditure in building steel infrastructure to spur high and sustainable growth in the post pandemic period.

As per the notification released by the Ministry of Steel, the CMDs of Steel CPSEs viz. Steel Authority of India (SAIL), National Mineral Development (NMDC), Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL), Kudremukh Iron Ore Company (KIOCL) and Manganese Ore (India) (MOIL) and senior officers of the Ministry of Steel attended the meeting.

The CNX Nifty ended at 17519.45, up by 139.45 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 17386.90 and 17532.70. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 7.16%, Bharti Airtel up by 4.51%, Coal India up by 4.10%, ONGC up by 3.63% and Titan Co up by 3.12%. On the flip side, Tata Consumer Products down by 1.11%, BPCL down by 0.64%, Nestle down by 0.55%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.45% and Axis Bank down by 0.38% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in red, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 1.43 points or 0.02% to 7,032.63 and France’s CAC was up by 11.93 points or 0.18% to 6,641.04. On the flip side, Germany’s DAX was down by 3.05 points or 0.02% to 15,726.04.

Asian markets settled mostly lower on Wednesday, tracking weakness in the Wall Street performance overnight due to increasing likelihood of a corporate tax rate hike from the current 21% to 26.5%. Chinese shares ended lower due to raised concerns over China’s economic recovery following weak factory and retail activity data, while fears over the rapid spread of the Delta strain of Covid-19 in the region also weighed on sentiment. China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has said major banks that Chinese property giant Evergrande Group won’t be able to pay loan interest due September 20, underlining the broadening impact of the property developer’s liquidity crisis. Further, Japanese shares declined on profit booking after a strong rally over the last two weeks.