Bourses continue upward rally in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their upward rally in late afternoon session, with the Sensex and Nifty gaining above 700 and 200 points, respectively led by gains in heavyweights like Infosys, Reliance Industries, HDFC, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Finance. Traders remained optimistic after government has launched two innovative customer centric initiatives of RBI viz. Retail Direct Scheme and the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme with an aim to expand the scope of investment in the country and make access to capital markets easier, more secure for investors. Besides, Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad has said that buoyancy in Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in October shows the Indian economy, adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, is on the path to swift recovery.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green as cash-strapped Chinese property developer Evergrande averted a default and investors pinned hopes that the worst price hikes could be soon over. European markets were trading mostly in green following gains across Asia and a week dominated by soaring inflation concerns. Back home, in scrip specific development, Fino Payments Bank has listed with 5.03% discount on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60623.65, up by 703.96 points or 1.17% after trading in a range of 59997.96 and 60628.50. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.48%, while Small cap index was up by 0.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were TECK up by 1.86%, IT up by 1.85%, Telecom up by 1.57%, Realty up by 1.33% and Energy was up by 1.30%, while there were no losers on sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 3.86%, Infosys up by 2.43%, HDFC up by 2.35%, Asian Paints up by 1.91% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.90%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 2.97%, Tata Steel down by 0.87%, NTPC down by 0.70%, Power Grid down by 0.27% and Axis Bank down by 0.26% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to expand the scope of investment in the country and make access to capital markets easier, more secure for investors, the government has launched two innovative customer centric initiatives of RBI viz. Retail Direct Scheme and the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme.

Through RBI Retail direct Scheme, a retail investor will get access to the government securities market. This scheme offers a new avenue for directly investing in securities issued by both Centre and state governments. The Scheme  will give strength to the inclusion of everyone in the economy as it will bring in the middle class, employees, small businessmen and senior citizens with their small savings directly and securely in government securities.

RBI Integrated Ombudsman Scheme will help in improving the grievance redress mechanism for resolving customer complaints against RBI's regulated entities. IT will do away with the jurisdictional limitations as well as limited grounds for complaints. The scheme is based on 'One Nation-One Ombudsman’ with one portal, one email, and one address for the customers to lodge their complaints.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18090.40, up by 216.80 points or 1.21% after trading in a range of 17905.90 and 18093.55. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 3.88%, Hindalco up by 2.60%, Infosys up by 2.41%, HDFC up by 2.34% and Wipro up by 2.31%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 2.92%, Tata Steel down by 0.68%, NTPC down by 0.48%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.35% and Indian Oil down by 0.23% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Nikkei 225 surged 332.11 points or 1.13% to 29,609.97, Hang Seng increased 79.98 points or 0.32% to 25,327.97, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 65.61 points or 0.38% to 17,518.13, KOSPI rose 43.88 points or 1.5% to 2,968.80 and Shanghai Composite was up by 6.31 points or 0.18% to 3,539.10. On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 8.10 points or 0.25% to 3,229.97 and Jakarta Composite was down by 40.29 points or 0.6% to 6,651.05.

European markets were trading mostly in green, France’s CAC increased 18.10 points or 0.26% to 7,077.65 and Germany’s DAX was up by 3.23 points or 0.02% to 16,086.34. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 20.82 points or 0.28% to 7,363.36.