Key gauges remain in green terrain in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks remained in green terrain in morning deals, led by gains in IT, TECK and Oil & Gas stocks amid positive trend in global markets. Traders took some support as an article on the state of the economy published in RBI Bulletin said that upbeat high-frequency indicators and consumer confidence show that the Indian economy continues to forge ahead, emerging out of shackles of the pandemic. It said the recovery is spearheaded by an uptick in private investment through November-December alongside a turnaround in bank credit offtake and high capex from the government sector (Centre and States). However, gains remain capped as some concern came with IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath’s statement that as the global economy recovers from the pandemic, a great deal of uncertainty remains about new COVID-19 variants and increased inflation pressures in many countries.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green after the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to trim its bond purchases by $30 billion per month, but hinted that any resurgence in Covid-19 could slow down the need for a rate hike. Back home, on the sectoral front, Passenger vehicles industry stocks remained in limelight as ratings agency ICRA revised downwards growth forecast for the domestic passenger vehicles industry to 8-11 per cent in the ongoing fiscal from the earlier estimate of 14-17 per cent on account of the ongoing semiconductor shortage.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57964.96, up by 176.93 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 57860.27 and 58337.20. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.27%, while Small cap index was down by 0.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.19%, TECK up by 0.93%, Oil & Gas up by 0.36%, Energy up by 0.30% and Metal up by 0.19%, while Utilities down by 0.86%, Auto down by 0.72%, FMCG down by 0.54%, Power down by 0.44% and Healthcare down by 0.44% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 2.70%, Infosys up by 2.02%, Bajaj Finserv up by 0.81%, HCL Technologies up by 0.71% and Tech Mahindra up by 0.65%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.81%, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.38%, ITC down by 1.05%, Sun Pharma down by 0.97% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.65% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to ensure robustness in working of banking entities, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed to replace existing approaches for measuring minimum operational risk capital requirements of banks with a new Basel-III standardised approach. ‘Operational risk’ refers to the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems or from external events.

The RBI issued the ‘Draft Master Direction on Minimum Capital Requirements for Operational Risk’ as part of the convergence of its regulations for banks with Basel-III standards. The central bank has sought comments on the draft by January 31, 2022.

All existing approaches - Basic Indicator Approach (BIA), The Standardised Approach (TSA)/ Alternative Standardised Approach (ASA) and Advanced Measurement Approach (AMA) for measuring minimum operational risk capital requirements - are proposed to be replaced by the new standardised approach (Basel-III Standardised Approach). The central bank aims to put the modified norms in place from April 1, 2023.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17264.70, up by 43.30 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 17239.20 and 17379.35. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 2.71%, Grasim Industries up by 1.99%, Infosys up by 1.99%, Wipro up by 1.34% and ONGC up by 0.83%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.94%, Eicher Motors down by 1.46%, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.10%, ITC down by 1.05% and Hindalco down by 1.03% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 511.72 points or 1.8% to 28,971.44, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 91.09 points or 0.52% to 17,751.19, Shanghai Composite gained 10.22 points or 0.28% to 3,657.85, KOSPI rose 7.10 points or 0.24% to 2,996.49 and Straits Times advanced 6.00 points or 0.19% to 3,120.88.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lost 44.90 points or 0.68% to 6,581.36 and Hang Seng decreased 189.28 points or 0.81% to 23,231.48.