Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended with strong gains on Monday. The start of the day was on a positive note as former Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya said the fundamentals of the Indian economy are sound as the real GDP in Q3 and Q4 of FY21 already crossed the pre-pandemic level. Adding more optimism, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Government of India, Piyush Goyal said at a time when the whole world is coming together to recover from the pandemic and bring growth back on track, a resurgent India is ready to take on the responsibility of being the frontrunner in this revival process.

During the day, traders were 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. Some support also came after rating agency ICRA in its latest report 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.

Markets remained higher as 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 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.

On the global front, European markets were trading lower weighed by ongoing concerns over the health of property giant China Evergrande Group and ahead of an OPEC meeting. Asian markets ended mostly lower on Monday, even after Japan's consumer confidence rose to the highest level in nineteen months in September. The data from the Cabinet Office showed that on a seasonally adjusted basis, the consumer confidence index increased to 37.8 in September from 36.7 in August. The latest index was the highest since February last year, when it was 38.4.

The BSE Sensex ended at 59299.32, up by 533.74 points or 0.91% after trading in a range of 58952.11 and 59548.82. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.51%, while Small cap index up by 1.71%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.66%, Power up by 2.26%, Realty up by 2.25%, Basic Materials up by 2.07% and Industrials up by 1.83%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.10% was the only losing index on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 4.25%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.35%, SBI up by 2.41%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.23% and Tech Mahindra up by 2.04%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 0.78%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.46%, Nestle down by 0.32%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.24% and Titan Co down by 0.17% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Calling upon the NRIs and Indian diaspora to invest in India unhesitatingly, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal has said that this is the right time for India’s vast expatriate community to invest in their motherland. He also said that there is a great opportunity in extraordinary growth in India.

Besides, Goyal said that the Government has taken many steps to create conducive business environment. Goyal said “From red-tapism to laying the red carpet for businesses, India under Prime Minister Modi has come a long way. As a result, India climbed up in Ease of Doing Business ranking from 130 to 63 in just 5 years and also jumped to 46th spot on the Global Innovation Index (GII), a jump of 35 places in last 6 years. Steps in last 7 years helped us nurture world’s 3rd largest startup ecosystem”.

Goyal further said that the visionary leadership of Prime Minister has catapulted nation to a higher pedestal in the international community. Besides, Goyal underlined that the 3.4 million strong Indian diaspora in the UAE acts as a bridge between the two countries.

The CNX Nifty ended at 17691.25, up by 159.20 points or 0.91% after trading in a range of 17581.35 and 17750.90. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Divi's Lab up by 8.04%, Hindalco up by 4.41%, NTPC up by 4.04%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.66% and Tata Motors up by 2.61%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.91%, Grasim Industries down by 2.15%, UPL down by 1.36%, Eicher Motors down by 0.96% and Indian Oil Corp. down by 0.90% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 9.81 points or 0.14% to 7,017.26, France’s CAC decreased 38.97 points or 0.6% to 6,478.72 and Germany’s DAX was down by 75.74 points or 0.5% to 15,080.70.

Asian markets ended mostly lower on Monday as China Evergrande group’s debt crisis continued to cast doubt over China's economic growth, while Chinese markets were closed for the National Day holiday and South Korea for National Foundation Day. Also, the fate of the US Biden Administration's flagship spending bills remained unclear. Japanese shares declined despite positive cues from Wall Street overnight, while Japan’s Fumio Kishida takes office as the Country’s new prime minister. Hong Kong shares ended lower as trading in shares of heavily indebted China Evergrande was suspended after it missed a second key bond interest payment. Chinese developer Hopson also suspended trading of its shares, citing an impending announcement of a major transaction.