Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended with notable gains on Thursday. After a positive start, markets traded volatile during the trading session, amid reports of foreign fund outflows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 579.27 crore, as per provisional data available on the NSE. Besides, admitting that credit growth is ‘very low’ given the size and growth rate of the economy, the Reserve Bank said for both the numbers to match, ‘the very very wide output gap’ has to close.

Despite volatility, key indices managed to end in green terrain, taking support with Pradeep Multani, President of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s statement that the accommodative policy stance at this juncture would not only pave the way for a double digit GDP growth in the current year 2021-22, but will also help in creating a strong, sustainable and vibrant economy going forward. He also said that it is inspiring to note that the RBI has retained the projection for GDP growth at 9.5 per cent for 2021-22 despite the prevailing uncertainty caused by a new variant of Coronavirus.

Traders got some support, as the Union Cabinet has approved the continuation of Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Rural) for another three years to provide financial assistance for the construction of the remaining 155.75 lakh houses under the scheme. The scheme has been extended beyond March 2021, and till March 31, 2024. The total target is to construct 2.95 crore 'pucca' houses.

On the global front, European markets were trading higher as traders bet the global recovery will be resilient to the new virus strain that is spreading around the world. Asian markets ended mostly higher, after consumer prices in China were up 2.3 percent on year in November, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. That was shy of expectations for a gain of 2.5 percent and up from 1.5 percent in October. On a monthly basis, inflation rose 0.4 percent - exceeding expectations for 0.3 percent but slowing from 0.7 percent in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex ended at 58807.13, up by 157.45 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 58340.85 and 58889.96. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.38%, while Small cap index up by 0.80%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.98%, FMCG up by 1.46%, Energy up by 1.38%, Telecom up by 1.14% and Industrials up by 1.08%, while Bankex down by 0.53%, Consumer Durables down by 0.27%, Realty down by 0.15% and PSU down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 4.60%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.06%, Asian Paints up by 2.23%, Reliance Industries up by 1.59% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.24%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 1.67%, Titan Co down by 1.32%, Nestle down by 0.99%, NTPC down by 0.94% and Power Grid down by 0.83% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has showed the 6.6% yoy revenue growth in India’s pharmaceutical market (IPM) during November 2021, led by improving growth trends in chronic therapies, namely cardiac 6% yoy (October 2021: down 1% yoy) and anti-diabetic 6% yoy (October 2021: up 1% yoy ).

The report further noted that acute therapies namely gastro-intestinal, respiratory and pain/analgesics continued to witness strong growth, aided by the low base impact. During November 2021, volumes were flat yoy (October 2021: declined 1.6% yoy), while price growth was 5.4% (5.3%) and new products launches were 1.2% (1.4%), driven by acute therapy products.

According to the report, acute therapies such as gastro, respiratory and pain/analgesics witnessed sales growth of 13.1% yoy, 16.3% yoy and 17.3% yoy respectively. Growth improvement was observed in chronic therapies during the month, with cardiac growing 6.3% yoy and anti-diabetic reporting 6.0% yoy growth.

The CNX Nifty ended at 17516.85, up by 47.10 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 17379.60 and 17543.25. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were ITC up by 4.65%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.00%, Asian Paints up by 2.26%, UPL up by 1.94% and Reliance Industries up by 1.59%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 1.73%, Titan Co down by 1.35%, Nestle down by 1.00%, NTPC down by 0.94% and Power Grid down by 0.78% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 16.33 points or 0.22% to 7,353.38, France’s CAC increased 26.47 points or 0.38% to 7,041.04 and Germany’s DAX  was up by 30.69 points or 0.2% to 15,717.78.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Thursday tracking Wall Street’s gains overnight after drug makers BioNTech and Pfizer said a third shot of their vaccine was found to neutralise the new Omicron variant in preliminary tests. Meanwhile, investors focus is now shifting to the release of US inflation data on Friday and next week's US Federal meeting. Chinese shares settled higher as investors digested the latest inflation data with the producer price index grew 12.9% year on year, while the consumer price index grew 2.3% year-on-year and 0.4% month-on-month in November. However, Japanese shares declined as investors turned cautious ahead of Fed, BOJ meetings next week.