Sensex, Nifty add gains; Healthcare leads

Indian equity benchmarks added gains in morning session, defying the weak cues from other Asian Markets, with the Sensex rising over 680 points and the Nifty 50 index advancing above its psychological level of 17,700. Sentiments remained up-beat with report that corporate credit profiles showed strong improvement, with more rating upgrades than downgrades witnessed in the first half of the current fiscal, despite the severe second COVID wave. Adding some optimism, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in its preliminary data has showed that India’s merchandise exports jumped 21.35% to $33.44 billion in September 2021 as compared to $27.56 billion in September 2020, mainly due to better performance by key sectors like engineering goods and petroleum products. Investors were also optimistic with the finance ministry stating that India's GST collection remained above Rs 1 lakh crore for the third month in a row at over Rs 1.17 lakh crore in September, raising expectations that the second half of the year will post higher revenues.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red ignoring the firmly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, as traders reacted to rising inflation worries and the grim domestic coronavirus infections situation. Back home, on the sectoral front, stocks related to Appliances, consumer electronics industry remained in focus as industry body CEAMA President Eric Braganza said the Indian appliances and consumer electronics market is expected to grow more than two-folds in the next five to six years and reach up to Rs 2 lakh crore, helped by the growth of the economy and domestic market.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59450.11, up by 684.53 points or 1.16% after trading in a range of 58952.11 and 59465.54. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.94%, while Small cap index was up by 1.25%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.61%, Energy up by 1.40%, Realty up by 1.38%, Industrials up by 1.21% and IT up by 1.06%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 2.46%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.41%, NTPC up by 2.36%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.20% and Reliance Industries up by 1.70%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.34%, Titan Company down by 0.20% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Rating agency ICRA in its latest report has said that the higher-than-budgeted revenue collections, mostly higher tax devolution from the Centre, will help states reduce their market borrowing to Rs 7.6 lakh crore in FY22, which is 4.7 per cent lower than the year-ago level. It pointed out that this is because after the 12.6 percent contraction in the gross state development loan issuance to Rs 3.1 lakh crore in H1 of FY22.

The report said the RBI pegs the market borrowing of 26 states (other than Odisha and Tripura) and two Union territories at Rs 2 lakh crore, which is similar to the level in Q3 FY21. Factoring in its expectation of higher-than-budgeted central tax devolution in FY22, it projects the net state development loans (SDL) issuance at Rs 1.7 lakh crore in Q4 of FY22, which will be 15.3 per cent lower than Rs 2 lakh crore in Q4 of FY21.

Forecasting that gross SDL issuance will decline by 8.1 per cent in the first three quarters of FY22, the report said if the actual issuance of Rs 3 lakh crore in H1 added to the gross issues of Rs 2 lakh crore indicated for Q3, total issuance will contract by 8.1 lakh crore to Rs 5.1 lakh crore the first three quarters of FY22 from Rs 5.6 lakh crore in the same period last fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17724.00, up by 191.95 points or 1.09% after trading in a range of 17581.35 and 17730.75. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Divi's Lab up by 8.97%, NTPC up by 2.47%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.47%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.38% and SBI Life Insurance up by 2.38%. On the flip side, Grasim Industries down by 1.98%, UPL down by 1.63%, Indian Oil Corp. down by 0.67%, JSW Steel down by 0.47% and Eicher Motors down by 0.41% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 2.25 points or 24478.68% to 553.00, Nikkei 225 slipped 0.94 points or 29044.47% to 270.80 and Taiwan Weighted dropped 0.74 points or 16600.52% to 122.81. On the flip side, Straits Times advanced 1.46 points or 3079.99% to 44.45 and Jakarta Composite soared 1.50 points or 6234.8% to 93.59.