Sensex, Nifty add gains in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks continued gaining rally in late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty trading near their intraday high points. Positive cues from other Asian markets helped key indices to remain higher. Sentiments remained positive, as the Commerce and industry ministry data has showed that India’s exports rose by 36.2 per cent to $23.8 billion during the first three weeks of December 2021 (during December 1-21), over the same period of 2020-21 ($17.49 billion). It was up by 27.70 per cent over the same period of 2019-20 ($18.65 billion). Besides, increasing per capita steel consumption and production of special steel as well as enhancing raw material security will remain the key focus areas of the government in 2022.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after industrial output in Japan advanced a seasonally adjusted 7.2 percent on month in November. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said that beat expectations for an increase of 4.8 percent and was up from the 1.8 percent gain in October. On a yearly basis, industrial production improved 5.4 percent - again topping forecasts for a gain of 2.5 percent following the 4.1 percent contraction in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57868.77, up by 448.53 points or 0.78% after trading in a range of 57683.24 and 57889.66. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.92%, while Small cap index was up by 1.40%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.62%, Industrials up by 1.46%, Consumer Discretionary up by 1.41%, Consumer Durables up by 1.37% and Realty up by 1.34%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 2.44%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.93%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.89%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.70% and HCL Tech. up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 0.44%, Power Grid down by 0.44% and Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.21% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, In order to substitute India's petroleum imports, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said the government has advised automobile makers to start manufacturing flex-fuel vehicles and flex-fuel strong hybrid electric vehicles complying with BS-VI emission norms within six months.

Further, he said this move will drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles on a well-to-wheel basis, helping India to comply with its commitment made at COP26 to reduce the total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes by 2030.

Besides, he pointed out that flex fuel vehicles are capable of running on a combination of 100 per cent petrol or 100 per cent bio-ethanol and their blends, along with strong hybrid electric technology in case of FFV-SHEVs.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17225.70, up by 139.45 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 17163.65 and 17230.45. There were 47 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 2.56%, Eicher Motors up by 2.34%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.95%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.87% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.82%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 0.58%, Power Grid down by 0.32% and Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.23% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 322.20 points or 1.12% to 28,998.66, Straits Times rose 16.65 points or 0.54% to 3,120.89, Taiwan Weighted jumped 114.61 points or 0.63% to 18,163.55, KOSPI added 5.26 points or 0.18% to 3,004.81 and Jakarta Composite advanced 26.60 points or 0.40% to 6,602.04. On the flip side, Hang Seng fell 11.87 points or 0.05% to 23,211.89 and Shanghai Composite was down by 5.65 points or 0.16% to 3,610.32.