Markets trim some gains in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets trimmed some of their gains in late afternoon session but continued to trade above neutral line, as investors tracked the latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Traders were cautious after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the ensuing jump in global crude prices are a challenge to financial stability in India. Sitharaman said ‘It is difficult to say how it (crude prices) will go.  However, the broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were trading above a percent. Realty, Consumer Durables and Consumer Discretionary counters were on the priority list of the buyers.  On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green and European markets were trading higher, as investors regarded Russian troop movements near Ukraine and initial Western sanctions as leaving room to avoid a war.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57471.12, up by 170.44 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 57374.21 and 57733.37. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.04%, while Small cap index was up by 1.35%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.29%, Consumer Durables up by 2.01%, Consumer Discretionary up by 1.11% and Basic Materials was up by 0.95%, Utilities up by 0.91%, while Oil & Gas was down by 0.01% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.32%, Titan Company up by 2.51%, Indusind Bank up by 2.01%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.51% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.06%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 0.87%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.81%, ICICI Bank down by 0.75%, Nestle down by 0.62% and Sun Pharma down by 0.36% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Nasscom Centre of Excellence for internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) CEO Sanjeev Malhotra has said that India has the third-largest ecosystem for start-ups in the world and the number of such firms is growing significantly with ten per cent being added every year.

Malhotra said there has been significant growth in the number of companies and funding organisations which are attributing to this cause. But, he said there is a need to build start-ups in areas of core research. He also stated that most of the start-ups are on the application side, while a lot of work has also been done in the field of software-aided services.

He said the centre of excellence is the largest tech innovation ecosystem in the country, comprising start-ups, innovators, enterprises and the government. He noted that more unicorns are in the making in the country, and the funding pattern is getting healthier. In business terms, he said a unicorn is a privately held start-up company valued at over $1 billion.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17138.55, up by 46.35 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 17108.85 and 17220.70. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.34%, Titan Company up by 2.34%, Indusind Bank up by 2.11%, Tata Consumer up by 1.85% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.53%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.88%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.96%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.88%, NTPC down by 0.87% and Divi's Lab down by 0.81% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Hang Seng increased 140.28 points or 0.6% to 23,660.28, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 86.44 points or 0.48% to 18,055.73, Jakarta Composite soared 58.07 points or 0.85% to 6,920.06, Shanghai Composite gained 32.00 points or 0.93% to 3,489.15 and KOSPI was up by 12.74 points or 0.47% to 2,719.53. On the flip side, Straits Times was down by 5.24 points or 0.15% to 3,395.34.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 42.87 points or 0.57% to 7,537.08, France’s CAC increased 67.20 points or 0.99% to 6,854.80 and Germany’s DAX was up by 106.36 points or 0.72% to 14,799.36.