Firm trade continues over Dalal Street

Firm trade continued over the Dalal Street in late morning session with both Sensex and Nifty maintaining their gaining rally, on the back of positive cues from other Asian markets. Traders were positive, as Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal said the government intends to decriminalise the Legal Metrology Act and asked his department as well as states to take a decision on this issue at the earliest in order to stop harassment of small shopkeepers. Besides, the Finance Ministry in its Monthly Economic Review report has said that the Indian economy is well prepared to absorb any upcoming external shock in terms of capital outflow induced by an uncertain geo-political environment, however inflation remains a concern.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after South Korea's unemployment rate declined in February. The data from Statistics Korea showed that the jobless rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 2.7 percent in February from 3.6 percent in January. In the same month last year, the unemployment rate was 3.9 percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 56676.07, up by 899.22 points or 1.61% after trading in a range of 56389.26 and 56761.01. There were 29 stocks advancing against 1 stock declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.40%, while Small cap index was up by 1.32%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.31%, Consumer Durables up by 2.12%, Metal up by 2.08%, Basic Materials up by 2.06% and Bankex up by 2.01%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 3.59%, Indusind Bank up by 3.49%, Ultratech Cement up by 3.22%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.78% and HDFC up by 2.66%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 0.48% was the only loser.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad has said banks have effected an aggregate recovery of Rs 7.34 lakh crore, in non-performing assets and written-off loan accounts, including those reported as fraud during the past six financial years and the first six months of the current financial year (FY22). On recovery of fraud amounts, he said Rs 55,895 crore have been recovered in the past six financial years and the current financial year up to December 31, 2021.

The minister said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued master directions on fraud to banks in 2016 and the government has instituted wide-ranging structural and procedural reforms to check frauds in banks. He added that these systematic and comprehensive checking of frauds, including the legacy stock of non-performing assets, led to the unearthing of frauds perpetrated over the years.

Karad said these steps have helped in a sharp decline in fraud amount from Rs 68,962 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 11,583 crore in 2020-21. He also said during the April-December period of 2021-22, the amount involved in bank frauds stood at Rs 648 crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16918.60, up by 255.60 points or 1.53% after trading in a range of 16837.85 and 16942.60. There were 47 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 3.48%, Indusind Bank up by 3.35%, Ultratech Cement up by 3.12%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.64% and Tata Motors up by 2.57%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 0.95%, Sun Pharma down by 0.54% and Tata Consumer Products down by 0.11% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 460.43 points or 2.5% to 18,875.51, Nikkei 225 surged 368.64 points or 1.45% to 25,715.12, Straits Times advanced 40.94 points or 1.27% to 3,276.98, Jakarta Composite soared 32.28 points or 0.47% to 6,950.47, KOSPI rose 22.74 points or 0.87% to 2,644.27 and Shanghai Composite gained 1.15 points or 0.04% to 3,065.12. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted dropped 112.50 points or 0.66% to 16,813.56.