Indian bourses continue to trade higher in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in morning session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Sentiments on the street remained in optimistic mood with Crisil Ratings in its latest report stated that after weathering multiple challenges over the past three fiscals, asset under management (AUM) of non-banking financial companies' (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs) is set to grow 8-10 percent in the fiscal 2023, helped by improvement in economic activity and strengthened balance sheet buffers. Some optimism also crept in with private report that ‘data was expected to show that India's economic recovery strengthened in the July-September quarter, helped by a pick-up in consumer spending, though the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant raised fears for the future’. Meanwhile, Parliament informed that loans for an amount of Rs 2.82 lakh crore have been sanctioned as on November 12 this year under the collateral-free loan scheme for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as investors continued to cautiously weigh how much damage the new omicron coronavirus variant may unleash on the global economy. Back home, on the sectoral front, the insurance industry stocks remained in watch as rating agency Icra said the life insurance industry has seen muted growth of 4 per cent in new business premiums (NBP) so far, it is expected to close the financial year (FY22) with 14 per cent growth in NBP, backed a pick-up in business in the second half of the fiscal.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58078.65, up by 818.07 points or 1.43% after trading in a range of 57252.45 and 58080.59. There were 30 stocks advancing against 0 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap rosep by 2.09%, while Small cap index was up by 2.15%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.86%, PSU up by 2.54%, Consumer Durables up by 2.31%, Industrials up by 2.27% and Oil & Gas up by 2.14%, while there were no losing losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 3.92%, Axis Bank up by 3.72%, Power Grid Corp up by 3.45%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.03% and Indusind Bank up by 2.66%.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary has said the net direct tax collection grew nearly 68 per cent during April 1 to November 23, 2021. He stated the Net Direct Tax Collection figures for the FY- 2021-22 as on November 23, 2021 are at Rs 6,92,833.6 crore showing a growth of 67.93 per cent and 27.29 per cent over the net collection figures for the corresponding period FY2020-21 and FY 2019-20.

The net collection between April 1 - November 23 in 2020-21 and 2019-20 fiscals was over Rs 4.12 lakh crore and over Rs 5.44 lakh crore respectively. The gross direct tax collection (before adjusting refunds) as of November 23 stood at over Rs 8.15 lakh crore, a 48.11 growth over the collections in the corresponding period in last fiscal.

Besides, he said that the gross GST collection in the current fiscal (April 2021-March'22) post Covid-19 outbreak is showing an increasing trend. The gross GST collection for full 2020-21 ended March 2021 was over Rs 11.36 lakh crore, while the same in the current fiscal till October stood at Rs 8.10 lakh crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17307.70, up by 253.75 points or 1.49% after trading in a range of 17051.05 and 17308.75. There were 48 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 3.75%, Axis Bank up by 3.59%, Power Grid Corporation up by 3.50%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.03% and BPCL up by 2.98%. On the flip side, Divi's Lab down by 0.88% and Cipla down by 0.01% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Straits Times trembled 20.07 points or 0.64% to 3,100.51, KOSPI fell 42.62 points or 1.46% to 2,866.70, Nikkei 225 slipped 137.07 points or 0.48% to 28,146.85 and Hang Seng decreased 273.42 points or 1.15% to 23,578.82.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 147.24 points or 0.85% to 17,475.33, Jakarta Composite soared 27.24 points or 0.41% to 6,635.53 and Shanghai Composite gained 9.48 points or 0.27% to 3,572.18.