Bourses sustain strong momentum in late afternoon session

Barometer gauges continued to trade with hefty gains in late afternoon session after US President Joe Biden unveiled harsh new sanctions against Russia. Buying was so good that all the 30 stocks on the Sensex were trading in green. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were trading with the gains of above three and half percent each. Sentiments remained upbeat after RBI data showed that bank credit grew by 7.86 per cent to Rs 115.45 lakh crore and deposits rose by 9.11 per cent to Rs 161.28 lakh crore in the fortnight ended February 11. Sector wise, hospitality and tourism sectors remained in limelight after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a meeting with representatives from travel, tourism and hospitality sectors to discuss various credit related issues with them. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green and European markets were trading higher, tracking a fragile global rebound as market participants assessed the impact of Western sanctions against Russia.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 55941.63, up by 1411.72 points or 2.59% after trading in a range of 55299.28 and 56183.70. all 30 stocks advancing on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 3.60%, while Small cap index was up by 3.65%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 5.45%, Realty up by 4.58%, Power up by 4.18%, Utilities up by 3.97% and Basic Materials was up by 3.81%, while there were no losers on sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 5.87%, Indusind Bank up by 5.35%, Bajaj Finance up by 5.03%, NTPC up by 4.95% and Tech Mahindra up by 4.35%.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has exhorted financial institutions like Sidbi to be more people-centric in the next 25 years so that the economy moves to a higher growth path. The government has termed the next 25 years leading to the 100th anniversary of India's independence as 'Amrit Kaal'.

Sitharaman  mentioned ‘It will attract people belonging to that (backward) region to be drawn back and if we can give them a perspective, which is good enough, I think we will be addressing a major problem related to human resource and also awaken those capacities which are lying dormant in the regions.’ Further she said many of the states have lot of current account and savings account (CASA) funds which are not effectively deployed in those regions because there are no big businesses. As a result, she said, impression that one gets is that CASA funds from those states move to business-rich areas which can absorb that kind of money.

She stated ‘Now that gradually can lead to a situation where our savings are not being used for our business, entrepreneurship development.’ She added it should be the job of institutions like the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) to spur credit growth and help develop the entrepreneurship ecosystem in backward regions.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16709.70, up by 461.75 points or 2.84% after trading in a range of 16478.30 and 16748.80. There were 48 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 8.00%, Tata Motors up by 7.64%, Adani Ports up by 6.53%, Tata Steel up by 6.49% and Indusind Bank up by 5.80%. On the flip side, Britannia down by 0.28% and Nestle down by 0.20% were the only losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Nikkei 225 surged 505.68 points or 1.95% to 26,476.50, Jakarta Composite soared 70.35 points or 1.03% to 6,888.17, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 57.63 points or 0.33% to 17,652.18, KOSPI rose 27.96 points or 1.06% to 2,676.76, Shanghai Composite gained 21.45 points or 0.63% to 3,451.41 and Straits Times was down by 20.47 points or 0.62% to 3,296.53. On the flip side, Hang Seng was down by 134.38 points or 0.59% to 22,767.18.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 83.36 points or 1.16% to 7,290.74, France’s CAC increased 33.91 points or 0.52% to 6,554.96 and Germany’s DAX was up by 20.91 points or 0.15% to 14,073.01.