Markets trade at day’s high points in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets traded at day’s high points in late afternoon session. Gains in trade were led mainly by Indusind Bank, Bajaj Finserv and HCL Tech. India VIX was in red. Sentiments remained upbeat after welcoming the Budget's focus on the agriculture sector, Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has said that it is the budget for the villages, poor people, farmers, women and youth. The minister said the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has been increased continuously in both the tenures of the Government, this time also it has been increased to Rs.1.32 lakh crore from Rs.1.23 lakh crore last year. Further, suppot also came in as commerce ministry in its provisional data has said that the country's exports rose by 23.69 per cent to $34.06 billion in January 2022 on healthy performance by engineering, petroleum and gems and jewellery segments. Imports in January grew by 23.74 per cent to $52.01 billion.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green and European markets were trading higher for a third straight session on Wednesday, recouping nearly half of their January losses, as strong fourth-quarter earnings outweighed concerns surrounding interest rate hikes ahead of key central bank decisions due on Thursday. Back home, in stock specific development, Tech Mahindra traded higher as it has reported a rise of 6.83% in its net profit at Rs 1,378.20 crore for third quarter ended December 31, 2021 as compared to Rs 1,290.10 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59557.11, up by 694.54 points or 1.18% after trading in a range of 59193.05 and 59571.45. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.05%, while Small cap index was up by 1.45%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.95%, Consumer Durables up by 1.38%, IT up by 1.31%, Healthcare up by 1.21% and TECK was up by 1.19%, while there were no losers on the sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 5.51%, Bajaj Finserv up by 5.18%, HCL Tech up by 3.52%, Bajaj Finance up by 3.22% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.04%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.88%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.98%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.86%, Nestle down by 0.85% and Sun Pharma down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, welcoming the Budget's focus on the agriculture sector, Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has said that it is the budget for the villages,  poor people, farmers, women and youth. He further noted that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, unprecedented provisions have been made in the budget for the overall development of the agriculture sector.     

The minister said that the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has been increased continuously in both the tenures of the Government, this time also it has been increased to Rs.1.32 lakh crore from Rs.1.23 lakh crore last year. Tomar thanked the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister for increasing the agriculture budget.

Besides, Tomar said that there is an emphasis on increasing agricultural production and productivity in the budget, as well as adequate provisions, have been made for oilseeds mission, linking agriculture with technology, farmers to get a fair price for their produce etc. He also said that agricultural diversification, promotion of organic and natural farming, increasing capacity-efficiency of farmers, crop evaluation, farmer drones, irrigation, adding courses in agricultural universities, agricultural research are all unprecedented provisions, which will bring about a paradigm shift in agriculture sector.    

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17774.30, up by 197.45 points or 1.12% after trading in a range of 17674.80 and 17783.40. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 5.39%, Bajaj Finserv up by 5.10%, HCL Tech up by 3.49%, Bajaj Finance up by 3.33% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.16%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.85%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.05%, Nestle down by 0.94%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.81% and Shree Cement down by 0.80% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green, Nikkei 225 surged 455.12 points or 1.68% to 27,533.60 and Jakarta Composite was up by 76.50 points or 1.15% to 6,707.65.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 38.73 points or 0.51% to 7,574.51, France’s CAC increased 27.26 points or 0.38% to 7,126.75 and Germany’s DAX was up by 60.26 points or 0.39% to 15,679.65.