Barometer gauges maintain gains

Stock markets were trading in fine fettle in the noon session as sentiments’ were upbeat after three months of selling spree, foreign investors have turned net buyers in the first week of January by infusing Rs 3,202 crore in Indian equities, as correction in markets provided them good buying opportunity. Additional support came as total employment generated by nine select sectors stood at 3.10 crore in the July-September 2021 quarter, which is 2 lakh more than that of the April-June period, according to a quarterly employment survey by the labour ministry. Traders also took solace as India has begun administering booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to frontline workers and vulnerable elderly people on January 10.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green despite concerns that the Fed will be raising rates at a time of slowing economic growth as a result of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Back home, all the sectoral indices on BSE were trading in green except energy. Auto was the top gaining index on BSE up by over 1.50% followed by IT and Teck both up by over 1%. On stock specific, Maruti Suzuki, and Infosys were trading up by over 3%, while Wipro and Asian Paints down by 2.22% and 1% respectively on BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60162.84, up by 418.19 points or 0.70% after trading in a range of 59987.18 and 60308.31. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.52%, while Small cap index was up by 1.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.58%, IT up by 1.33%, TECK up by 1.27%, Realty up by 1.24% and Capital Goods was up by 1.13%, while Energy was down by 0.16% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.13%, Infosys up by 3.04%, ITC up by 1.88%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.80% and Mahindra & Mahindra was up by 1.42%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.22%, Asian Paints down by 1.00%, Nestle down by 0.97%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.88% and Reliance Industries was down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, government has decided not to impose anti-dumping duty on certain steel products being imported from countries like China, Japan, and Korea, as the finance ministry has not accepted the recommendations of the directorate general of trade remedies (DGTR).

The commerce ministry's investigation arm DGTR had conducted a probe against imports of 'Cold Rolled/cold reduced flat steel products of iron or Non-Alloy Steel, or other Alloy Steel of all width and thickness - not clad, plated or coated' and 'Hot Rolled flat products of alloy or non-alloy steel', following complaints filed by domestic manufacturers of the respective products. On both these categories of steel, the directorate on September 14, 2021, had recommended the imposition of definitive anti-dumping duties. While DGTR recommends the duty, the Department of Revenue takes the final decision to impose the duties.

The directorate had concluded in its findings that cold-rolled products are being dumped by companies from China, Japan, Korea and Ukraine; and hot-rolled goods are dumped from China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Brazil and Indonesia. India has a free trade agreement with Japan and Korea.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17939.20, up by 126.50 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 17879.15 and 17978.15. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.12%, UPL up by 3.01%, Infosys up by 2.87%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.71% and Tata Motors was up by 2.22%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.36%, Asian Paints down by 1.09%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.84%, Nestle down by 0.81% and Divi's Lab was down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly higher; Jakarta Composite soared 15.56 points or 0.23% to 6,716.88, Shanghai Composite gained 7.89 points or 0.22% to 3,587.43, Hang Seng increased 179.74 points or 0.77% to 23,673.12, Straits Times advanced 24.46 points or 0.76% to 3,229.72 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 69.62 points or 0.38% to 18,239.38.

On the other hand, KOSPI was down by 27.53 points or 0.93% to 2,927.36.