Bourses continue upward rally in late afternoon session

The Indian equity benchmarks continued their upward rally in late afternoon session, with the Sensex and Nifty gaining above 450 and 125 points, respectively, led by buying in stocks such as Ultratech Cement, Titan Company and Bajaj Finserv. As for broader indices, BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index continued to trade in green. Traders remained optimistic after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest report showed that India's forex reserves have increased by $1.919 billion to $642.019 billion for the week ended October 29 on a healthy increase in the currency assets and value of gold. Traders took note of report that State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara said that India is ready to move into the next orbit of growth with the hugely successful implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination program.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as long-running concerns about inflation offset forecast-busting economic data out of the United States and China, while tourism-linked firms rallied on optimism about the global reopening after Pfizer said its pill to treat COVID-19 was highly effective. European markets were trading mostly in green after hitting records last week on the back of positive economic data, strong quarterly earnings and major central banks holding borrowing costs at record lows.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60558.55, up by 490.93 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 59779.19 and 60597.86. There were 23 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remains unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.03%, while Small cap index was up by 0.69%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 2.30%, Oil & Gas up by 1.65%, Power up by 1.44%, Basic Materials up by 1.42% and Capital Goods was up by 1.32%, while Healthcare down by 0.71% and Bankex was down by 0.15% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement up by 4.32%, Titan Company up by 4.24%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.84%, HDFC up by 3.23% and Tech Mahindra up by 2.85%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 9.74%, SBI down by 1.46%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.40%, Axis Bank down by 0.36% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.31% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest report showed that India's forex reserves have increased by $1.919 billion to $642.019 billion for the week ended October 29 on a healthy increase in the currency assets and value of gold.

The report further noted that the overall reserves had declined by $908 million to $640.1 billion at the end of the previous reporting week. According to the report, value of the gold reserves increased by $572 million to $39.012 billion in the reporting week.

Further, foreign currency assets, a major part of the overall reserves, increased by $1.363 billion to $578.462 billion for the reporting week. Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18067.30, up by 150.50 points or 0.84% after trading in a range of 17836.10 and 18079.85. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 4.24%, Titan Company up by 4.20%, Indian Oil up by 4.12%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.61% and HDFC up by 3.33%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 9.93%, Divi's Lab down by 7.11%, SBI down by 1.44%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.44% and Hindalco down by 0.96% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 118.40 points or 0.68% to 17,415.30, Jakarta Composite soared 50.51 points or 0.77% to 6,632.30, Straits Times advanced 20.10 points or 0.62% to 3,262.44 and Shanghai Composite was up by 7.06 points or 0.2% to 3,498.63. On the flip side, KOSPI fell 9.07 points or 0.31% to 2,960.20, Nikkei 225 slipped 104.52 points or 0.35% to 29,507.05 and Hang Seng was down by 106.74 points or 0.43% to 24,763.77.

European markets were trading mostly in green, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 5.86 points or 0.08% to 7,309.82 and France’s CAC was up by 1.63 points or 0.02% to 7,042.42. On the flip side, Germany’s DAX was down by 4.87 points or 0.03% to 16,049.49.