Benchmarks remain in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks remained in green in morning deals, helped by significant buying in Metal and Realty stocks amid an overall firm trend in global equities. Traders took support as the RBI said banks' gross NPA ratio has fallen to a seven-year low of 5 per cent and the banking system remains sound and well-capitalised. Some support also came with Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that he expects at least two more free trade agreements (FTA) to be signed up in 2023. He said negotiations are scheduled with the UK, European Union and Canada. However, gains remain capped as some concern came with data released by the Reserve Bank showed that the country's current account deficit widened to 4.4 per cent of the GDP in the quarter ended September, from 2.2 per cent of GDP during the April-June period, due to higher trade gap. On the global front, Asian markets are trading in green even as overall gains remained capped outside Hong Kong amid worries that a new COVID variant could emerge in China as the virus spreads widely and rapidly.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61262.73, up by 128.85 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 61202.16 and 61392.68. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.80%, while Small cap index was up by 1.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.66%, Realty up by 1.38%, PSU up by 1.25%, Consumer Durables up by 1.16% and Industrials up by 0.82%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.37%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.98%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.97%, Titan Company up by 1.80% and Tata Motors up by 1.44%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 0.76%, HDFC Bank down by 0.65%, Indusind Bank down by 0.56%, HDFC down by 0.53% and ICICI Bank down by 0.49% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said he expects at least two more free trade agreements (FTA) to be signed up in 2023. He said negotiations are scheduled with the UK, European Union and Canada. He added that his ministry does not have the bandwidth to tend to requests by smaller trading partners like New Zealand with which the bilateral trade stands at USD 350 million.

Talking about the operationalisation of the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement signed in April this year, he said January itself is filled with meetings between Indian Commerce Ministry officials and their counterparts abroad. After handing over certificates of origin to the first among the Indian goods being sent to Australia after the agreement, Goyal said the FTA will benefit a slew of sectors, including textiles, gems and jewellery and also information technology, which gets aided by the dropping of double taxation.

Goyal said he expects Indian IT companies' billing to Australia alone growing to USD 1 billion in the next 5-7 years from USD 200 million at present. Besides, he said the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which India walked out of in 2019, would have become a free trade agreement with China in effect.  He added that Indian industry was 'petrified' with the earlier UPA government's move to start negotiations on the same. He called the walkout an economically prudent and wise decision. As of now, with the agreement with Australia, India has separately struck trade agreements with 13 of the 15 countries in the RCEP, while only New Zealand and China remain.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18230.50, up by 39.50 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 18210.75 and 18265.25. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 2.48%, Tata Steel up by 2.33%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.13%, ONGC up by 2.04% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.87%. On the flip side, SBI Life Insurance down by 0.98%, Eicher Motors down by 0.87%, Asian Paints down by 0.72%, HDFC Bank down by 0.71% and ICICI Bank down by 0.64% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading in green; Hang Seng increased 161.97 points or 0.82% to 19,903.11, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 113.77 points or 0.81% to 14,198.79, Nikkei 225 surged 53.34 points or 0.2% to 26,147.01, Shanghai Composite gained 18.80 points or 0.61% to 3,092.50, Jakarta Composite soared 12.68 points or 0.18% to 6,872.76 and Straits Times advanced 9.37 points or 0.29% to 3,258.61.