Markets trade firm in early deals; Nifty reclaims 16,700 mark

Indian equity benchmarks made optimistic start on Tuesday, after previous session's sell-off, tracking gains in other Asian counterparts. Markets are trading firm in early deals on account of buying in Metal, Basic Materials and Consumer Durables stocks. Sentiments got a boost as Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce Amitabh Kumar said Indian exports showed a turnaround after December last year and are still going strong. Adding more optimism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured India Inc that the government would focus on reducing the compliance burden while exhorting the top companies to make full use of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets are trading higher despite the sell-off on Wall Street overnight, as traders are looking to pick up stocks at a bargain following the recent weakness. Meanwhile, traders remain concerned about the pace of the economic recovery from the pandemic amid fears of fresh disruptions across supply chains globally following tighter restrictions in Europe.

Back home, edible oil industry stocks were in focus as the government extended by one year the free import policy for refined bleached deodorised palm oil, and refined bleached deodorised palmolein to December 31, 2022 but retained a clause that the import is not permitted through any port in Kerala. In scrip specific development, Vedanta traded higher as it acquired Goa-based Nicomet, a leading nickel and cobalt producer. Besides, shares of CE Info Systems (MapMyIndia) to list on the stock exchanges today.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 56293.97, up by 471.96 points or 0.85% after trading in a range of 56197.08 and 56589.95. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index surged 0.93%, while Small cap index was up by 1.15%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.50%, Basic Materials up by 1.72%, Consumer Durables up by 1.65%, Realty up by 1.52%, IT up by 1.43%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.25% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.15%, HCL Technologies up by 2.87%, Wipro up by 2.65%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.36% and NTPC up by 1.85%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.87% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.08% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce Amitabh Kumar has said Indian exports showed a turnaround after December last year and are still going strong, while global trade took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kumar also stressed on increasing India’s share in global exports, which currently stand 1.6 per cent, and also highlighted the need to change the duty structure for some goods. Kumar said ‘Global trade was disrupted significantly during the pandemic. However India’s exports showed a turnaround since December 2020 onwards and performing extremely well thereafter. However, the full potential of trade remains to be tapped. We have to work continuously to increase India’s share in global exports from the current 1.6 per cent’.

He further said ‘We understand that there is a need to bring in required changes in the duty structure of some of the goods in our country’.  He said ‘In so far as the merchandise trade performance is concerned, the government is closely monitoring and pushing hard for a target driven merchandise export performance of $400 billion in the current fiscal by engaging with all stakeholders across states and reaching the districts’. He added ‘Export growth has been robust in 2021-22. Merchandise exports remained above US dollars 30 billion for 7 consecutive months during April to October, and October in particular was an unusually high export performance period with the highest ever merchandise exports being recorded at US dollars 35.65 billion’.

Kumar said the total merchandise export during April to November 2021 was valued at $262.5 billion, a growth of 50.7 per cent as compared to $174.16 billion in April to November 2020-21. He added that the top five export items in April to November 2021-22 were engineering goods, petroleum products, gems and jewellery, organic and inorganic chemicals, and drugs and pharmaceuticals. He said the Department of Commerce is engaging with five countries or regions - the EU, the UK, Canada, Australia and the UAE - for early conclusion of a free trade agreement or FTA.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16745.90, up by 131.70 points or 0.79% after trading in a range of 16722.95 and 16839.45. There were 40 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Wipro up by 2.99%, HCL Technologies up by 2.89%, Tata Steel up by 2.74%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.50% and JSW Steel up by 2.40%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.06%, Eicher Motors down by 0.49%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.47%, SBI Life Insurance down by 0.44% and Cipla down by 0.40% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 556.46 points or 1.99% to 28,494.27, Straits Times rose 15.10 points or 0.49% to 3,088.07, Hang Seng gained 90.70 points or 0.40% to 22,835.56, Taiwan Weighted jumped 107.12 points or 0.61% to 17,776.23, KOSPI added 11.76 points or 0.40% to 2,974.76 and Shanghai Composite was up by 14.88 points or 0.41% to 3,608.48, while Jakarta Composite fell 9.37 points or 0.14% to 6,537.74.