Bourses continue to trade in green territory

Indian equity markets continued to trade in green in late morning deals, tracking positive cues from other Asian markets amid investors await the release of Federal Reserve minutes from its November policy meeting for directional cues. Meanwhile, broader indices on the BSE were trading with gains in the range of 0.25-0.60%. Support came in as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its latest report said that India, with a growth rate of 6.6 per cent in this financial year, is set to be the second-fastest growing economy in the G20 in FY 2022-23 behind Saudi Arabia, despite decelerating global demand and the tightening of monetary policy to manage inflationary pressures. However, gains remained capped as depreciation in Indian rupee against dollar weighed down sentiments. Rupee weakened by 15 paise to 81.82 against the dollar at the Inter-bank Foreign Exchange market on account of increased demand for the American currency from importers and banks.

On the global front, Asian markets were mostly trading in green as traders continued to express optimism about the US Fed slowing the pace of its interest rate hikes despite some hawkish comments from Fed officials. Back home, in stock specific development, Nykaa fell after its chief financial officer Arvind Agarwal resigned from the company.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61514.68, up by 95.72 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 61442.69 and 61780.90. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.28%, while Small cap index up by 0.58%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 0.70%, Metal up by 0.62%, Bankex up by 0.49%, Utilities up by 0.48% and Power up by 0.43%, while Capital Goods down by 0.16%, FMCG down by 0.06% and Realty down by 0.05% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 1.33%, SBI up by 0.98%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.97%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.83% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corp down by 0.48%, ITC down by 0.37%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.31%, Indusind Bank down by 0.18% and Asian Paints down by 0.18% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Krishanrao Karad has said that the asset base of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) has scaled past Rs 54 lakh crore as of March 2022, constituting almost a quarter of the balance sheet of the commercial banking sector.

Karad said NBFCs have become the major growth driver of the economy by playing a vital role in providing credit to small and medium enterprises. He said they have helped the MSME sector scale up its operations and create more jobs. They have also helped create higher credit growth than the commercial banking sector --NBFCs loans grew over 10 per cent last fiscal while for banks, it was just half of that. The main reason for their success is that they have customised products and become an innovation machine of the financial landscape.

The minister also credited digitisation and customer service for their success, which has seen their balance-sheet size more than double to 25 per cent of the balance sheet size of the banking sector as of March 2022 from just 12 per cent in fiscal 2010. NBFCs are investing in digital technology like artificial intelligence and big data. It will also bridge the financial gap in the coming years due to its low cost of operations, adding that NBFCs have become a strong alternative to the banking sector. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18273.85, up by 29.65 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 18251.75 and 18325.40. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Apollo Hospital up by 1.77%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.34%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 1.18%, JSW Steel up by 1.13% and SBI up by 1.01%. On the flip side, Adani Enterprises down by 1.04%, Power Grid Corp down by 0.71%, Tata Consumer Products down by 0.38%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.34% and ITC down by 0.32% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 66.34 points or 0.46% to 14,608.54, Shanghai Composite gained 14.76 points or 0.48% to 3,103.70, KOSPI rose 11.96 points or 0.5% to 2,417.23, Jakarta Composite soared 35.91 points or 0.51% to 7,066.50 and Hang Seng increased 194.25 points or 1.11% to 17,618.66, However, Straits Times lost 0.06 points to 3,259.50.