Sensex, Nifty maintain gaining rally in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks were maintaining their gaining rally in late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty holding strong gains. Positive cues from other Asian markets helped key indices to remain higher. Traders were positive, as Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian said the impact of 'taper tantrum' or withdrawal of monetary stimulus by the US Federal Reserve on India may not be much given the strong fundamentals of the country's economy. Some support also came after RBI data showed that bank credit rose by 6.67 per cent to Rs 109.57 lakh crore and deposits by 9.34 per cent to Rs 155.95 lakh crore in the fortnight ended September 24, 2021.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, even after South Korea posted a current account surplus of $7.51 billion in August, the Bank of Korea said on Thursday - down from $8.21 billion in July. The goods account surplus decreased to $5.64 billion, compared to $7.08 billion in August 2020. The services account recorded a $1.0 billion surplus, up from the $0.88 billion dollar deficit one year earlier, owing to an improvement in the transport account.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59797.61, up by 607.88 points or 1.03% after trading in a range of 59597.06 and 59816.88. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.54%, while Small cap index was up by 1.46%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 4.77%, Realty up by 4.60%, Auto up by 3.87%, Consumer discretionary up by 2.93% and IT up by 1.80%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.03% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan Co up by 9.53%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 4.53%, Maruti Suzuki up by 4.18%, HCL Tech. up by 2.77% and Asian Paints up by 2.44%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.39%, Axis Bank down by 0.28%, HDFC down by 0.15%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.13% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.07% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said India is very close to arriving at the specifics of the two-pillar taxation proposition at the G20 and is in the last stage of finalising the details. A total of 130 countries had in July agreed to a overhaul of global tax norms to ensure that multinationals pay taxes wherever they operate and at a minimum 15% rate. The Finance Ministry had then said that some significant issues including share of profit allocation and scope of subject to tax rules are yet to be addressed and a 'consensus agreement' is expected by October after working out the technical details of the proposal.

The proposed two-pillar solution consists of two components - Pillar One which is about reallocation of additional share of profit to the market jurisdictions and Pillar Two consisting of minimum tax and subject to tax rules. Sitharaman said the two-pillar solution of international taxation issue will reach an advanced implementation stage which India will have to pilot.

She said ‘At this stage, we are very close to arriving at something in terms of the specifics of the two-pillar proposition. We already had a conversation and agreed to a framework... We are in the last stages of finalising the details. So I won't think it is time appropriate for me to spell the details of what we are agreeing on but these are the things on which the conversation is ongoing.’ The finance ministers of G-20 countries are scheduled to meet on October 13 in Washington.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17817.35, up by 171.35 points or 0.97% after trading in a range of 17763.80 and 17830.25. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan Co up by 9.53%, Tata Motors up by 9.27%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 4.50%, Maruti Suzuki up by 4.25% and HCL Tech. up by 2.85%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.65%, Cipla down by 1.48%, Divi's Lab down by 1.35%, Britannia down by 0.67% and Coal India down by 0.57% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 115.83 points or 0.42% to 27,644.70, Hang Seng increased 576.70 points or 2.41% to 24,543.19, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 317.36 points or 1.94% to 16,710.52, KOSPI rose 40.60 points or 1.4% to 2,948.91, Straits Times advanced 28.40 points or 0.92% to 3,112.28, while Jakarta Composite lost 2.39 points or 0.04% to 6,414.93.