Markets remain steady; Sensex above 59,300 mark

Indian equity benchmarks held their earlier gains to remain steady in morning session, with Nifty trading above 17,650 mark. Traders remained optimistic as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest data has showed that bank credit rose 14.52 per cent to Rs 123.69 lakh crore and deposits increased 9.14 per cent to Rs 169.72 lakh crore in the fortnight ended July 29. Some support also came with a private report that India is likely to be the fastest-growing Asian economy in 2022-23. The report expects India’s gross domestic product growth to average 7 per cent during this period - the strongest among the largest economies - and contributing 28 per cent and 22 per cent to Asian and global growth, respectively. Traders overlooked private report stated that Investments by private equity and venture capital funds into Indian entities fell by 69 per cent to $3 billion during July. The investments in July are the lowest for any month in a year, and lower than the $4.9 billion recorded across 118 deals in the preceding month of June. On the global front, Asian markets are trading in green as softer-than-expected U.S. inflation data eased concerns over the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes and boosted investors' appetite for riskier assets.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59380.64, up by 563.35 points or 0.96% after trading in a range of 59320.45 and 59484.99. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.86%, while Small cap index was up by 0.54%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.49%, IT up by 1.42%, Consumer Durables up by 1.41%, Capital Goods up by 1.25% and Realty up by 1.23%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 2.65%, Axis Bank up by 2.49%, Titan Co up by 2.05%, Wipro up by 1.85% and ICICI Bank up by 1.83%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 0.33%, NTPC down by 0.29%, ITC down by 0.27% and Power Grid Corporation down by 0.04% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has tightened norms for digital lending to prevent charging of exorbitant interest rates by certain entities and also check unethical loan recovery practices. Under the new norms, all loan disbursals and repayments are required to be executed only between the bank accounts of borrower and the regulated entities (like banks and NBFCs) without any pass-through/ pool account of the Lending Service Providers (LSPs).

Issuing a detailed set of guidelines for digital lending, the RBI mentioned about the concerns primarily related to unbridled engagement of third parties, mis-selling, breach of data privacy, unfair business conduct, charging of exorbitant interest rates, and unethical recovery practices. The RBI had constituted a Working Group on 'digital lending including lending through online platforms and mobile applications' (WGDL) on January 13, 2021.

Further, it said regulatory framework to support orderly growth of credit delivery through digital lending methods while mitigating the regulatory concerns has been firmed up. This regulatory framework is based on the principle that lending business can be carried out only by entities that are either regulated by the Reserve Bank or entities permitted to do so under any other law.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17685.70, up by 150.95 points or 0.86% after trading in a range of 17668.20 and 17719.30. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 2.54%, Axis Bank up by 2.46%, Eicher Motors up by 2.25%, Titan Co up by 1.98% and Wipro up by 1.88%. On the flip side, Tata Consumer Product down by 1.71%, Apollo Hospital down by 0.64%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.58%, Divi's Lab down by 0.37% and NTPC down by 0.29% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading in green; Shanghai Composite gained 38.00 points or 1.18% to 3,268.02, KOSPI rose 33.42 points or 1.35% to 2,514.30, Straits Times advanced 13.63 points or 0.41% to 3,299.96, Jakarta Composite soared 72.59 points or 1.02% to 7,158.83, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 248.27 points or 1.66% to 15,187.29 and Hang Seng increased 348.47 points or 1.78% to 19,959.31.