Markets trade firm in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made optimistic start on Friday tracking overnight gains on Wall Street. Markets are trading firm in early deals with gains of around half a percent each on account of buying in Realty, IT and TECK stocks. Some support came in as union Minister Piyush Goyal said the commerce ministry is trying to ease norms for Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and make it simpler for units to exit these areas. The ministry is also looking at ways for partial de-recognition of existing SEZs so that areas which have no more demand can be used for industrial or other purposes. Traders took note of report that Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal asked bankers to be more liberal on aspects like exchange rates while serving the exporters segment. Meanwhile, India recorded a spike of 31,458 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The country also witnessed 319 deaths, taking the death toll to 446,399.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets are trading mostly lower as traders remain concerned about the impact of the rapid spread of the delta variant of coronavirus in the region and in several countries, particularly in the U.S., which continues to stifle economic activity. However downside remained limited following the firmly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, as traders remain cautiously optimistic about a faster global economic recovery after the US Federal Reserve signaled a scale down in stimulus and easing concerns about the impact of Chinese real estate major Evergrande's debt woes.

Back home, banking stocks were in focus as RBI data showed Bank deposits grew 11.9 per cent year-on-year during 2020-21 compared to 8.8 per cent in 2019-20 on the back of high growth in current account and savings account (CASA) deposits. In scrip specific development, Dilip Buildcon traded higher as Supreme Court confirmed appointment of Dilip Buildcon & VPR Mining Infrastructure, as the mine developer cum operator, by Punjab State Power Corporation at the Pachhwara Central Coal Block Mine. The total contract value of the tender is Rs 32,156.04 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60207.84, up by 322.48 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 60118.72 and 60333.00. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.17%, while Small cap index was up by 0.54%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.26%, IT up by 2.24%, TECK up by 1.99%, Telecom up by 1.03%, Capital Goods up by 1.02%, while Metal down by 0.87%, Consumer Durables down by 0.39%, Power down by 0.11%, Basic Materials down by 0.07%, Healthcare down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Technologies up by 3.20%, Infosys up by 2.23%, Asian Paints up by 2.11%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.86% and TCS up by 1.58%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.64%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.57%, NTPC down by 0.56%, SBI down by 0.51% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.49% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Piyush Goyal has said the commerce ministry is trying to ease norms for Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and make it simpler for units to exit these areas. The ministry is also looking at ways for partial de-recognition of existing SEZs so that areas which have no more demand can be used for industrial or other purposes.

He said ‘There are a large amount of areas lying across SEZs in the country. Now that the sunset clause (for SEZ tax incentives) has set in, probably we may not find enough traction for new people to set up units within SEZ, so we are trying to ease the system of SEZs going forward and make it easier for people to exit from the SEZ status.’

He also said different issues raised by exporters are under consideration of the government. Citing an example, he said the ministry is discussing with its finance counterpart the issues of allowing e-commerce seamlessly for artificial jewellery up to a value of USD 800 and depreciation of second hand goods. He added ‘We are also discussing how the SEZs can play a more important role in the DTA (domestic tariff area) through an equalisation levy.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17914.10, up by 91.15 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 17889.70 and 17947.65. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Technologies up by 3.05%, Wipro up by 2.83%, Grasim Industries up by 2.64%, Infosys up by 2.18% and Asian Paints up by 1.82%. On the flip side, JSW Steel down by 1.69%, Hindalco down by 1.01%, Tata Consumer Products down by 0.88%, Tata Steel down by 0.80% and SBI Life Insurance down by 0.77% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly lower, Straits Times slipped 3.89 points or 0.13% to 3,072.55, Hang Seng lost 8.66 points or 0.04% to 24,502.32, KOSPI fell 2.05 points or 0.07% to 3,125.53, Jakarta Composite fell 4.90 points or 0.08% to 6,137.81 and Shanghai Composite was down by 2.47 points or 0.07% to 3,639.75. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 surged 600.98 points or 2.03% to 30,240.38 and Taiwan rose162.26 points or 0.95% to 17,240.48.