Benchmarks remain in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in green in morning deals, following gains in index majors Ultratech Cement, HDFC and Bharti Airtel amid a largely positive trend in global equity markets. Sentiments remained positive with Crisil Ratings’ report stated that Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) new rules for microfinance institutions (MFIs), who have been deeply impacted in the Covid 19 pandemic because of loan losses, will help widen profits by giving such entities greater flexibility in operations. Some support also came with Commerce and industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the free trade agreement between India and the UAE has opened huge opportunities and businesses of both countries should look at taking the bilateral trade to $250 billion by 2030. However, gains remain capped as some cautiousness came with the latest public debt management report showed that the government’s total liabilities rose to Rs 128.41 lakh crore in December quarter from Rs 125.71 lakh crore in the three months ended September 2021. The increase reflects a quarter-on-quarter increase of 2.15 per cent in October-December 2021-22.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. Traders continue to monitor developments surrounding the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, with hopes of peace talks that will resume today leading to a diplomatic solution. Back home, there was some reaction in aviation industry stocks as Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh said airports across India will see 33.81 crore passengers in 2022-23, 69.35 per cent more than the current financial year. Defence industry stocks remained in limelight as the government said that a total of Rs 3,343 crore has been received as foreign direct investment (FDI) in the defence sector since 2014.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57800.77, up by 207.28 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 57726.28 and 57934.15. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.71%, while Small cap index was up by 0.64%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Basic Materials up by 0.88%, Industrials up by 0.81%, Healthcare up by 0.81%, Telecom up by 0.72% and Capital Goods up by 0.71%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.63%, Energy down by 0.57%, Metal down by 0.36%, PSU down by 0.16% and FMCG down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement up by 2.59%, HDFC up by 2.34%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.09%, Asian Paints up by 0.97% and Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.87%. On the flip side, ITC down by 0.86%, Tata Steel down by 0.30%, NTPC down by 0.19%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.17% and Infosys down by 0.10% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said that a total of Rs 3,343 crore has been received as foreign direct investment (FDI) in the defence sector since 2014. Singh stated the defence sector needs continuous investment for capacity enhancements and the creation of state-of-the-art technologies. He mentioned  ‘During the period from 2001-2014, a total FDI inflow of about Rs 1,382 crore was reported and from 2014 till date, a total FDI of about Rs 3,343 crore has been reported.’

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said the government created the Defence AI (Artificial Intelligence) Council (DAIC) in 2019 for providing necessary guidance to enable and effect the development of an operating framework for the adoption of the application of AI in the defence sector. He said all the three services have established institutional mechanisms in the form of AI Sub Committee and Joint Working Group on AI. As part of the data management framework, the services have formulated data policy and appointed data management officers.

He also said that the budget allocated and utilised in the past three years for the research and development of indigenous defence aircraft was Rs 3,280 crore and Rs 2,835 crore respectively. He added 100 per cent rate of success has been achieved for the various research carried out for the development of indigenous defence aircraft.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17286.35, up by 64.35 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 17260.85 and 17322.25. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 2.60%, HDFC up by 2.39%, Divi's Lab up by 2.33%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 2.25% and Bharti Airtel up by 2.16%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.50%, Coal India down by 1.93%, ITC down by 0.80%, Tata Steel down by 0.22% and Infosys down by 0.19% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 202.67 points or 0.73% to 28,146.56, Hang Seng increased 98.59 points or 0.45% to 21,783.56, KOSPI rose 6.22 points or 0.23% to 2,735.78 and Taiwan Weighted strengthened 0.86 points or 0% to 17,520.87.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lost 7.39 points or 0.1% to 7,042.21, Straits Times trembled 7.93 points or 0.23% to 3,424.06 and Shanghai Composite declined 13.85 points or 0.43% to 3,200.65.