Domestic indices trade higher in early deals; Telecom, Utilities lead gainers

Indian equity benchmarks made slightly positive start on Wednesday amid mixed global cues. Soon, markets slipped below neutral lines but managed to recoup losses and are trading higher with notable gains in early deals. All sector indices except the Metal index were trading in the positive zone, led by the Telecom, Utilities and Oil & Gas. Traders took encouragement with a private report that Indian GDP will grow at 8.5 per cent in 2021-22, and the rate will accelerate further to 9.8 per cent in 2022-23. Some support came in as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asserted that the government is tough on defaulters, particularly fugitives, getting back their assets through legal process and giving it to banks because of which their bad assets have come down.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets traded lower amid the continued increase in treasury yields following Fed Chair Powell's re-nomination weighed on high-growth tech stocks. Traders also remain concerned about the resurgence of coronavirus cases and fresh lockdown measures in Europe and some other countries.

Back home, oil & gas industry stocks were in focus as India will release 5 million barrels of crude oil from its strategic petroleum reserves in a concerted effort to bring down global crude oil prices. In scrip specific development, Bharti Airtel traded higher as Moody’s Investors Service revised the company and its subsidiary Bharti Airtel Int'l (Netherlands) BV’s ratings outlook to positive from stable.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58787.25, up by 122.92 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 58564.75 and 58873.00. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.41%, while Small cap index was up by 1.05%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.88%, Utilities up by 1.48%, Oil & Gas up by 1.16%, PSU up by 0.96%, Power up by 0.95%, while Metal down by 0.63% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 1.99%, Sun Pharma up by 1.49%, NTPC up by 1.05%, Power Grid up by 1.04% and SBI up by 0.60%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.82%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.64%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.55%, Infosys down by 0.54% and Asian Paints down by 0.53% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry said the Centre has released two instalments of tax devolution to the State Governments amounting to Rs 95,082 crore on November 22 2021, as against normal monthly devolution of Rs 47,541 crore. Currently, 41 per cent of the tax collected is devolved in 14 instalments among states during a fiscal.

After a meeting with all chief ministers and state finance ministers recently, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said the Centre will double the amount of November tax devolution by including one advance instalment to help states push their capital expenditure.

The increased amount of devolution in November is an advance release, and final adjustments will be made in March 2022. It added ‘Rs 95,082 crore of Tax devolution to strengthen fiscal space of States’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17549.25, up by 45.90 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 17485.05 and 17572.35. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 3.58%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.11%, SBI Life Insurance up by 2.11%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.94% and BPCL up by 1.38%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 0.99%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.88%, Infosys down by 0.83%, Divi's Lab down by 0.65% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 438.47 points or 1.47% to 29,335.64, Hang Seng fell 25.38 points or 0.10% to 24,626.20, Taiwan Weighted lost 41.74 points or 0.24% to 17,624.38, KOSPI declined 11.15 points or 0.37% to 2,986.18 and Shanghai Composite was down by 3.44 points or 0.10% to 3,585.65. On the other hand, Straits Times rose 4.54 points or 0.14% to 3,232.07 and Jakarta Composite added 1.49 points or 0.02% to 6,679.37.