Sensex, Nifty turn green in early noon deals

Local equity benchmarks erased all the losses to turn positive in noon session as investors became cautiously optimistic regarding the new Omicron variant might not cause a widespread global economic disruption to worsen the coronavirus pandemic. Additional support came in as India Ratings expects the economy to grow 8.3 per cent in Q2 and close the year with 9.4 per cent in FY'22. Investors also keeping an eye on India’s statistics ministry which will announce the gross domestic product (GDP) data. However, gains remain capped on unabated foreign fund outflows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were stood net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 3,332.21 crore on Monday, exchange data showed.

On the global front; Asian markets were trading mostly lower even as China's factory activity unexpectedly picked up in November, growing for the first time in three months as raw material prices fell and power rationing abated, taking some pressure off a manufacturing sector grappling with soft demand. Back home, most of the sectoral indices were trading in green with stocks in the realty sector and consumer durables sector witnessing most of the buying interest.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57334.51, up by 73.93 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 57042.86 and 58183.77. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.07%, while Small cap index was up by 1.01%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.65%, Consumer Durables up by 1.33%, Industrials up by 0.90%, Capital Goods up by 0.83% and Power was up by 0.77%, while Metal down by 0.42%, Energy down by 0.42% and Telecom was down by 0.01% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 3.10%, Axis Bank up by 1.73%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.70%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.64% and Titan Company was up by 1.02%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.58%, HDFC down by 1.19%, Tata Steel down by 1.16%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.71% and Reliance Industries was down by 0.59% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, government has informed that scheduled commercial banks have written off bad loans amounting to Rs 46,382 crore during the first six months of 2021-22 (H1FY22). As per the RBI guidelines and policy approved by bank boards, non-performing loans, including, inter-alia, those in respect of which full provisioning has been made on completion of four years, are removed from the balance sheet of the bank concerned by way of the write-off.

Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said banks evaluate/consider the impact of write-offs as part of their regular exercise to clean up their balance-sheet, avail of tax benefit and optimise capital, in accordance with the RBI guidelines and policy approved by their boards. He said the borrowers of written-off loans continue to be liable for repayment and the process of recovery of dues from the borrower in written-off loan accounts continues.

He further said the total loans outstanding of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) stood at Rs 3,34,171 crore at end-March 2021, up from Rs 2,98,214 crore at end-March 2020. He said RRBs have been playing an important role in purveying agricultural credit, particularly to small and marginal farmers and weaker sections of society.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17080.30, up by 26.35 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 16987.50 and 17324.65. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid up by 3.02%, Shree Cement up by 1.96%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.78%, SBI Life Insurance up by 1.78% and Axis Bank was up by 1.77%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.59%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.47%, Adani Ports down by 1.44%, ONGC down by 1.21% and Hero MotoCorp was down by 1.13% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 562.56 points or 2.36% to 23,289.68, Nikkei 225 slipped 462.16 points or 1.63% to 27,821.76, Shanghai Composite declined 8.81 points or 0.25% to 3,553.89, Straits Times trembled 44.05 points or 1.41% to 3,076.53, KOSPI fell 70.31 points or 2.42% to 2,839.01 and Jakarta Composite was down by 40.93 points or 0.62% to 6,567.36.

On the flip side; Taiwan Weighted was up by 99.67 points or 0.58% to 17,427.76.