Bourses maintain healthy gains in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets maintained their healthy gains in late afternoon session following gains in Healthcare, Consumer Durables and Auto stocks amid positive global sentiment. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were also trading higher. The overall market breadth was highly positive as 2206 shares were advancing and 1232 were declining, while 135 shares were unchanged on the BSE. Traders took note of report that India and Saudi Arabia have discussed the feasibility of institutionalizing trade in rupee and riyal and the introduction of UPI (Unified Payment Interface) and RuPay card there. Diversification and expansion of trade and commerce, removal of trade barriers, automatic registration and marketing authorization of Indian pharma products in Saudi Arabia, feasibility of institutionalizing Rupee-Riyal trade, introduction of UPI and Rupay cards in Saudi Arabia; were amongst the key points of discussion.

On the global front, all Asian markets were trading higher tracking Wall Street's late rally as investors gird themselves for another big Federal Reserve interest rate hike this week, though fears of a recession remain elevated. However, European markets were trading mostly in red on Tuesday struggling to build on the previous session’s broadly higher trade.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59954.17, up by 812.94 points or 1.37% after trading in a range of 59556.91 and 60105.79. There were 29 stocks advancing against 1 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.85%, while Small cap index was up by 1.25%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 2.51%, Consumer Durables up by 2.45%, Auto up by 1.94%, Realty up by 1.73%, Metal up by 1.61%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 3.86%, Indusind Bank up by 3.59%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 3.30%, Titan Company up by 2.58% and ICICI Bank up by 2.43%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 0.44% was the only losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to develop a premium brand around Indian GI products, promoting them as niche products, the commerce and industry ministry is planning a multi-media campaign to promote over 400 GI (Geographical Indication) products such as Darjeeling Tea, Chanderi Fabric, Mysore Silk, and Kashmir Walnut Wood Carving. It added this would further increase employment avenues for the producers and boost the economy.

It stated the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) intends to empanel one or more audio-visual agencies to carry out various multi-media campaigns, production of advertising and promotional materials on a regular ongoing basis. The agency will also support the department in scaling up the GI campaign through manifold interventions, considered important for building a strong GI ecosystem.  Work for the empanelled agency or agencies would include production of films, documentaries, sponsored AV (audio-visual) programmes, AV spots, and production of short videos.

Moreover, it mentioned considering the enormous commercial potential of GI, it is important to focus on marketing, branding, publicity campaign and cataloguing of GI products and this can be achieved by use of e-business tools, communication technology and development of web portals. Explaining the purpose of the campaign, it said effective communication is the key to successful design and delivery of government projects and services as it plays an important role in helping all stakeholders understand their roles and responsibilities in project life cycle.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17877.25, up by 255.00 points or 1.45% after trading in a range of 17744.40 and 17919.30. There were 47 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Apollo Hospital up by 6.10%, Indusind Bank up by 3.68%, Cipla up by 3.57%, Eicher Motors up by 3.56% and Sun Pharma up by 3.55%. On the flip side, Grasim Industries down by 0.36%, Nestle down by 0.19% and Shree Cement down by 0.17% were the only losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher, Hang Seng increased 215.45 points or 1.16% to 18,781.42, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 123.62 points or 0.86% to 14,549.30, Nikkei 225 surged 120.77 points or 0.44% to 27,688.42, KOSPI rose 12.19 points or 0.52% to 2,367.85, Straits Times advanced 9.56 points or 0.29% to 3,265.87, Shanghai Composite gained 6.81 points or 0.22% to 3,122.41 and Jakarta Composite was up by 1.46 points or 0.02% to 7,196.95.

European markets were trading mostly in red, France’s CAC decreased 15.22 points or 0.25% to 6,046.37 and Germany’s DAX was down by 17.89 points or 0.14% to 12,785.35. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 23.62 points or 0.33% to 7,260.30.