Bourses continue to trade above neutral lines in late afternoon session

The Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade above neutral lines in late afternoon session on account of buying in front line counters. Traders took support after credit rating agency Moody’s has allotted a Baa3 rating for the Government of India with a stable outlook. India's credit profile reflects key strengths including its large and diversified economy with high growth potential, a relatively strong external position, and a stable domestic financing base for government debt. Besides, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has pitched India as the best investment destination, saying the time is “just ripe” to engage in areas of mutual interests of India and the US. In scrip specific development, Dreamfolks Services remained in focused after it has debuted at Rs 505.00 on the BSE, up by 179 points or 54.91% from its issue price of Rs 326.

On the global front, Asian markets and European markets were trading mostly in green ahead to this week's ECB meeting for clues about the trajectory of growth and interest-rate moves going forward.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59371.05, up by 125.07 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 58974.26 and 59566.67. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.53%, while Small cap index was up by 0.29%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.87%, Utilities up by 1.74%, Oil & Gas up by 1.23%, Energy up by 1.10% and Realty was up by 0.91%, while FMCG down by 0.40% and Auto was down by 0.06% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.97%, NTPC up by 2.01%, Reliance Industries up by 1.16%, Tata Steel up by 0.70% and Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.55%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.80%, Nestle down by 1.27%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.13%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.04% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid constantly changing business scenario, Union Minister Smriti Irani expressed need for the traders and merchants to modernize and digitize their business models. The Minister made the remarks while launching CAIT India Knowledge Mission in the national capital.

The initiative will educate and assist the traders across the country to adopt new and modern technologies to their businesses. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) will organise both offline and online workshops across the country as part of the programme.

The mission has been launched to teach the traders and merchants the needs and benefits of digitization. They will be guided with the use of digital payments in the businesses, changes to be made in the stock, customers' demand for types of products among others.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17688.35, up by 22.55 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 17587.65 and 17764.65. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.14%, Apollo Hospital up by 2.82%, NTPC up by 1.91%, Cipla up by 1.50% and Reliance Industries up by 1.24%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.83%, Tata Consumer down by 1.74%, Britannia down by 1.71%, Nestle down by 1.22% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.18% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Shanghai Composite gained 43.54 points or 1.36% to 3,243.45, Straits Times advanced 16.73 points or 0.52% to 3,232.21, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 16.10 points or 0.11% to 14,677.20, Nikkei 225 surged 6.90 points or 0.02% to 27,626.51, KOSPI rose 6.34 points or 0.26% to 2,410.02 and Jakarta Composite was up by 1.28 points or 0.02% to 7,233.16. On the flip side, Hang Seng was down by 22.97 points or 0.12% to 19,202.73.

European markets were trading mostly in green, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 7.60 points or 0.1% to 7,295.03 and Germany’s DAX was up by 17.86 points or 0.14% to 12,778.64. On the flip side, France’s CAC was down by 3.28 points or 0.05% to 6,089.94.