Key gauges remain in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in green in morning deals, amid buying interest in FMCG, Telecom and Banking stocks. Sentiments remained positive with Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement that Indo-US cooperation will go a long way to restore normalcy and further boost economic dynamism. He also said economic and technological cooperation between India and the United States became stronger in the post-Cold War era, much stronger during the global war against terrorism and still more robust alongside Indo-US strategic partnership. Some support also came with private report stating that investments by private equity and venture capital funds surged to $10.7 billion in August from $2.2 billion in the same month last year, and $9.7 billion in July this year. Meanwhile, helped by festive demand, retail sales improved in August and reached 88 per cent of the pre-pandemic levels, as per the retail business survey by the Retailers Association of India (RAI). In July, retail sales stood at 72 per cent of the pre-pandemic levels of July 2019.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red weighed by declines in China and Hong Kong, even after a strong lead-in from Wall Street which had also pushed the dollar to the lower end of its recent range. Back home, on the sectoral front, automobile industry’s stocks remained in action as the Union Cabinet approved a Rs 26,058 crore production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for auto, auto-components and drone industries to enhance India's manufacturing capabilities. The PLI scheme will incentivize the emergence of advanced automotive technologies' global supply chain in India.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58869.72, up by 146.52 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 58700.50 and 58908.18. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.46%, while Small cap index was up by 0.15%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.63%, Telecom up by 1.18%, Bankex up by 0.70%, Power up by 0.53% and Utilities up by 0.48%, while IT down by 0.41%, TECK down by 0.24%, Metal down by 0.19%, Healthcare down by 0.14% and Consumer Durables down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 8.29%, ITC up by 6.46%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.34%, Power Grid Corporation up by 0.87% and SBI up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 0.73%, TCS down by 0.67%, Titan Company down by 0.55%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.54% and Tata Steel down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said that the trust between the government and the industry has gone up following the scrapping of retrospective taxation and the Centre is open to new ideas to further boost the country's economic growth. He also said there is huge scope for the American and Indian defence majors to go for co-production and co-development of military equipment and that the cooperation would go a long way in strengthening bilateral economic dynamism.

The minister said India is a strong and reliable investment destination and the American companies should focus on the transfer of technology through joint ventures. He listed a range of measures initiated by the NDA government to boost economic growth and said the global investors are now receiving a ''red carpet'' welcome in India instead of ''red-tapism''.

Singh said ‘we are expecting double-digit growth in the financial year 2022 despite the challenge of COVID-19. But, the challenge will be to maintain a healthy growth rate of 7-8 per cent in the years after 2022.’ He also noted that the coronavirus pandemic has brought newer challenges in terms of disruption to supply chains, the downturn in industrial activities, negative growth in the travel and tourism industry. He added that there is no doubt that Indo-US cooperation will go a long way to restore normalcy and further boost economic dynamism.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17558.35, up by 38.90 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 17510.45 and 17576.90. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 8.26%, ITC up by 6.57%, ONGC up by 1.36%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.35% and SBI up by 1.16%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 10.24%, Coal India down by 0.99%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.80%, TCS down by 0.74% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.60% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 494.39 points or 1.97% to 24,538.82, Nikkei 225 slipped 196.32 points or 0.64% to 30,315.39, Taiwan Weighted dropped 74.41 points or 0.43% to 17,279.59, Shanghai Composite declined 24.77 points or 0.68% to 3,631.45 and KOSPI fell 11.71 points or 0.37% to 3,141.69.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite soared 1.56 points or 0.03% to 6,111.79 and Straits Times advanced 7.92 points or 0.26% to 3,066.53.