Bourses trade in fine fettle in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets are trading in fine fettle in late afternoon session. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index are also trading higher. Huge buying in Realty stocks helped the markets to trade higher. Traders took note of report that Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said solar energy, infrastructure, military cooperation and startup ecosystem are four critical areas where India can be a valuable partner to African nations. The trade between India and African countries has been pretty balanced with exports of trade and services of about $40 billion and imports of $49 billion. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as investors fretted about the earnings outlook in the face of economic and financial challenges. A rebound in commodity prices on the back of a weaker dollar and IBM's reduced cash flow forecast served to keep underlying sentiment cautious. European markets were trading lower amid caution ahead of the latest European consumer inflation data leading into a key meeting of the European Central Bank later in the week.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 54,720.44, up by 199.29 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 54232.82 and 54697.63. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.40%, while Small cap index was up by 0.69%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.29%, PSU up by 0.68%, Bankex up by 0.63%, Metal up by 0.55% and Auto was up by 0.55%, while IT down by 0.37%, TECK down by 0.31%, FMCG down by 0.10% and Oil & Gas was down by 0.09% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 2.24%, Tata Steel up by 1.56%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.56%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.43% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.37%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 1.73%, HCL Tech down by 1.20%, Infosys down by 0.99%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.81% and Sun Pharma down by 0.76% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that a few states including Telangana have sought a five-year extension for the compensation paid to them for revenue shortfall due to GST implementation. When a nationwide GST subsumed 17 central and state levies from July 1, 2017, it was decided that states will be compensated for any loss of revenue from the new tax for five years. That timeframe ended on June 30 this year.

FM further noted that Centre borrowed Rs 1.1 lakh crore in 2020-21 and Rs 1.59 lakh crore in 2021-22 as back-to-back loans to meet part of the shortfall in cess collection. She also said that the government of India has further released Rs 86,912 crore to states/UTs on May 31, 2022, and cleared the entire provisionally admissible GST compensation due till May 2022.

Besides, Sitharaman said that this decision was taken to assist the states in managing their resources and ensuring that their programmes especially the expenditure on capital is carried out successfully during the financial year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16,326.55, up by 48.05 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 16187.05 and 16328.65. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 2.32%, Apollo Hospital up by 1.62%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.59%, Tata Steel up by 1.51% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.51%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 1.65%, HCL Tech down by 1.24%, Tata Consumer down by 1.21%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.17% and Infosys down by 1.03% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Hang Seng decreased 185.12 points or 0.89% to 20,661.06, Taiwan Weighted dropped 25.56 points or 0.17% to 14,694.08, KOSPI fell 4.28 points or 0.18% to 2,370.97 and Straits Times was down by 1.02 points or 0.03% to 3,120.74. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite gained 1.33 points or 0.04% to 3,279.43, Jakarta Composite soared 76.84 points or 1.15% to 6,736.09 and Nikkei 225 was up by 173.21 points or 0.65% to 26,961.68.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 15.29 points or 0.21% to 7,207.95, France’s CAC decreased 42.52 points or 0.7% to 6,049.39 and Germany’s DAX was down by 85.63 points or 0.66% to 12,874.18.