Bourses turn positive in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets erased all their losses to turn positive in late afternoon session. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index are also trading in green. Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, Power Grid Corporation of India were among top BSE Sensex gainers. Traders took support as former Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya has said that the Indian economy has recovered 'handsomely' from the pandemic-induced disruptions and expressed hope that the recovery will be sustained and the growth rate of 7 to 8 percent will be restored. Panagariya suggested that the government must now signal its intention to wind down the fiscal deficit by cutting it by a half-to-one percentage point in 2022-23. Besides, Commerce Ministry said exports of engineering goods rose 54 per cent to $81.8 billion during April-December 2021-22 as compared to $52.9 billion in the corresponding nine-month period of 2020-21. The sector accounted for over 27 per cent in India’s total exports basket during the period. In entire 2020-21, exports from the sector was $76.62 billion.

On the global front, all Asian markets were trading lower following a highly volatile day on Wall Street fuelled by fears about the Federal Reserve’s plans to hike interest rates, with attention lasered on its upcoming two-day policy meeting. European markets were trading higher as investors in the region appeared to shrug off volatility in global markets at the start of the week, and concerns over Ukraine.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57,661.30, up by 169.79 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 56409.63 and 57721.95. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.58%, while Small cap index was up by 0.48%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.47%, Power up by 1.91%, PSU up by 1.88%, Utilities up by 1.73% and Auto was up by 1.65%, while IT down by 0.64%, Consumer Durables down by 0.58% and TECK was down by 0.09% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 6.29%, Maruti Suzuki up by 5.05%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.73%, SBI up by 3.59% and Indusind Bank up by 3.57%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 1.66%, Wipro down by 1.53%, HDFC down by 1.53%, Asian Paints down by 1.48% and Bajaj Finserv down by 1.48% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, former Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya has said that the Indian economy has recovered 'handsomely' from the pandemic-induced disruptions and expressed hope that the recovery will be sustained and the growth rate of 7 to 8 percent will be restored.

Panagariya suggested that the government must now signal its intention to wind down the fiscal deficit by cutting it by a half-to-one percentage point in 2022-23. He said due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fiscal deficit ballooned to 9.5 percent in the first pandemic year 2020-21. He added that the government aims to achieve a fiscal deficit of 6.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the current financial year (2021-22).

Former Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman further stated that the dominant view among epidemiologists now is that with a large proportion of the population now having antibodies due to past infections from different variants of the virus or vaccination, there is now a high chance that the epidemic is about to enter the endemic phase.

On rising inflationary trends, he observed that inflation is a concern in the United States, where it has reached 7 percent, the highest in the last 40 years, but not in India. In India, he pointed out that it has remained within the target range of 2 to 6 percent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17,223.90, up by 74.80 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 16836.80 and 17234.00. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 6.27%, Maruti Suzuki up by 4.89%, SBI up by 3.78%, Indusind Bank up by 3.74% and Bharti Airtel up by 3.65%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 1.56%, Wipro down by 1.55%, Asian Paints down by 1.48%, HDFC down by 1.40% and Bajaj Finserv down by 1.29% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading lower, Nikkei 225 slipped 457.03 points or 1.66% to 27,131.34, Hang Seng decreased 412.85 points or 1.67% to 24,243.61, Taiwan Weighted dropped 287.92 points or 1.6% to 17,701.12, Shanghai Composite declined 91.05 points or 2.58% to 3,433.06, Jakarta Composite lost 87.00 points or 1.31% to 6,568.17, KOSPI fell 71.61 points or 2.56% to 2,720.39 and Straits Times was down by 43.63 points or 1.33% to 3,239.72.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 40.72 points or 0.56% to 7,337.87, France’s CAC increased 59.47 points or 0.88% to 6,847.26 and Germany’s DAX was up by 94.56 points or 0.63% to 15,105.69.