Sensex, Nifty manage to trade in green terrain

In a highly volatile session, Indian equity benchmarks managed to trade in green terrain in late morning session, despite negative cues from other Asian markets. Traders were positive, as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said startups of the country will help India transition from an assembly economy to a knowledge-based economy. He said that Indian startups are the agents of change as well as the pillars for making India aatma nirbhar (self reliant).

Adding more relief, a private report stated that digital platforms help unlock up to 30 per cent more value for microentrepreneurs who are associated with them by helping overcome challenges like market access and credit.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after China's bank lending declined more than expected in December, data from the People's Bank of China showed on Wednesday. In December, banks extended CNY 1.13 trillion in new loans compared to CNY 1.27 trillion lending in November.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61206.14, up by 56.10 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 60949.81 and 61348.57. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.21%, while Small cap index was up by 0.51%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.14%, Healthcare up by 1.36%, Basic Materials up by 1.23%, PSU up by 0.79% and Capital Goods up by 0.77%, while Realty down by 0.82%, Bankex down by 0.48%, Auto down by 0.44%, Consumer Durables down by 0.16% and Consumer discretionary down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.86%, Sun Pharma up by 3.73%, Power Grid up by 1.93%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.37% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.97%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 5.71%, HDFC Bank down by 1.70%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.28%, Axis Bank down by 0.85% and Indusind Bank down by 0.65% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, With rising prices of essential kitchen items, the India’s retail inflation jumped to a six-month high of 5.59 per cent in December 2021, close to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation was 4.91 per cent in November 2021 and 4.59 per cent in December 2020. The RBI, which mainly factors in the CPI-based retail inflation while arriving at its bi-monthly monetary policy, has been tasked by the government to keep the inflation at 4 per cent with margin of 2 per cent on either side (that is, in the range of 2-6 per cent).

The National Statistical Office (NSO) under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its data has showed that the Rural CPI (General) in December 2021 stood at 5.36 per cent as against 4.29 per cent in November. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 5.83 per cent in December as against 5.54 per cent in November. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 167.0, 165.1 and 166.1 respectively, in December 2021.

As per the data released by the NSO, food inflation was at 4.05 per cent in December this fiscal compared to 1.87 per cent in the preceding month. In the food basket, inflation was on higher side in ‘cereals and products’, eggs, ‘milk and products’, spices, and ‘prepared meals, snacks and sweets’ segments in December over the preceding month. However, the rate of price rise was slower in case of vegetables, fruits, and ‘oil and fats’. In the ‘fuel and light’ category, though the inflation softened from a month ago, it remained elevated at 10.95 per cent during the month. It was 13.35 per cent in November 2021.

The Price data are collected from selected 1114 urban Markets and 1181 villages covering all States/UTs through personal visits by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster. During the month of December 2021, NSO collected prices from 99.7% villages and 98.5% urban Markets while the Market-wise prices reported therein were 89.6% for rural and 93.3% for urban.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18245.25, up by 32.90 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 18163.80 and 18272.25. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 4.98%, JSW Steel up by 3.78%, Sun Pharma up by 3.74%, Coal India up by 3.61% and UPL up by 2.63%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 5.75%, HDFC Bank down by 1.61%, Tata Consumer Products down by 1.45%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.20% and Tata Motors down by 1.11% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 257.12 points or 0.89% to 28,508.54, Shanghai Composite declined 14.60 points or 0.41% to 3,582.83, KOSPI fell 10.69 points or 0.36% to 2,961.79, Jakarta Composite lost 9.35 points or 0.14% to 6,637.72 and Straits Times trembled 1.65 points or 0.05% to 3,253.33. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 28.76 points or 0.16% to 18,404.16 and Hang Seng increased 40.24 points or 0.16% to 24,442.41.