Firm trade persists on Dalal Street

Firm trade persisted on Dalal Street in morning session on sustained buying by participants, with Sensex rising over 500 points and Nifty comfortably sailing near the crucial 17900 mark. The strength in the markets was being supported by report which claimed that the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) launched by the government in 2020 to provide relief to MSMEs impacted by COVID-19 pandemic has saved 13.5 lakh firms from going bankrupt and consequently 1.5 crore jobs. The street were getting relief with private report stated that private equity investments hit a record high of $40.1 billion in 2021, an increase of over 15 per cent from the previous year, led by a $3.6 billion flow into Flipkart and $1.93 billion into Bundl Technologies. Sectorally, Sugar industry stocks remained in limelight as trade body AISTA demanded respective state governments to allow truck movement 24X7 to increase the pace of export with maximum quantities of exportable sugar getting lifted from Maharashtra and Karnataka putting pressure on logistics. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green ahead of the US jobs data due later in the day and expected US interest rate hikes.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60103.44, up by 501.60 points or 0.84% after trading in a range of 59727.25 and 60122.07. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.82%, while Small cap index was up by 0.86%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.63%, Energy up by 1.35%, PSU up by 1.31%, Realty up by 1.12% and Oil & Gas up by 1.12%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 2.09%, Wipro up by 2.01%, Indusind Bank up by 1.76%, SBI up by 1.75% and HDFC Bank up by 1.57%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 0.84%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.57%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.33%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.04% and Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.01% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry has released monthly revenue deficit grant to 17 states totalling Rs 9,871 crore. This was the 10th instalment of the post devolution revenue deficit (PDRD) grant released to the states. So far, an amount of Rs 98,710 crore has been released to 17 states as post devolution revenue deficit grant in the current financial year.

States which received this grant are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

The grants are released as per the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission in monthly installments to meet the gap in revenue accounts of states post devolution. The Commission has recommended this grant to 17 states during 2021-22. The eligibility of states to receive this grant and the quantum of grant was decided by the Commission based on the gap between assessment of revenue and expenditure of the state after taking into account the assessed devolution for 2021-22.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17893.10, up by 147.20 points or 0.83% after trading in a range of 17787.70 and 17899.30. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 3.02%, Grasim Industries up by 2.47%, Wipro up by 2.03%, ICICI Bank up by 1.99% and SBI up by 1.87%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 0.80%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.69%, Cipla down by 0.41%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.37% and Eicher Motors down by 0.25% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 265.10 points or 1.15% to 23,337.96, Jakarta Composite soared 44.39 points or 0.67% to 6,697.74, KOSPI rose 35.09 points or 1.2% to 2,955.62, Straits Times advanced 16.07 points or 0.5% to 3,200.37 and Shanghai Composite gained 12.54 points or 0.35% to 3,598.62.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 slipped 55.80 points or 0.2% to 28,432.07 and Taiwan Weighted dropped 215.94 points or 1.18% to 18,151.98.