Bulls hold tight grip over Dalal Street

Bulls held a tight grip over the Dalal Street in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty maintaining their strong gains, aided by positive cues from other Asian markets along with rally in TECK, IT and Metal stocks. Sentiments got boost as Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal expressed confidence that the structural reforms taken by the Government in last 8 years will help India emerge among the top three developed economies in the world. Adding some comfort, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the central government is engaging with states and local administrations to ensure that benefits of Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) initiatives reach the ground. She said EoDB is not just the Centre's responsibility but that of states as well.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, even after Taiwan's consumer price inflation accelerated more-than-expected in December, largely driven by higher food prices, especially eggs. The data released by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting & Statistics showed that consumer prices rose 2.71 percent year-on-year in December, faster than the 2.35 percent increase in November. The price index for eggs grew 19.92 percent annually in December, and that for vegetables rose 11.98 percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60794.81, up by 894.44 points or 1.49% after trading in a range of 60109.94 and 60889.41. There were 29 stocks advancing against 1 stock declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.77%, while Small cap index was up by 0.76%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were TECK up by 2.38%, IT up by 2.35%, Metal up by 1.42%, Energy up by 1.30% and Auto up by 1.19%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.72% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.36%, TCS up by 2.81%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.74%, Indusind Bank up by 2.68% and HCL Technologies up by 2.62%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 1.66% was the lone loser.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the central government is engaging with states and local administrations to ensure that benefits of Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) initiatives reach the ground. She said EoDB is not just the Centre's responsibility but that of states as well.

The minister said ‘Central Government can bring in rules, meaningful regulations, remove many of the burdens and give it as a policy. It can be implemented in Union Territories for which the Government of India is directly responsible but further down it is the State governments, which also equally have to do it. Similarly, municipal areas will have to do their part and panchayats will have to also pitch in.’ For raising tax compliance, she said, the government has taken many initiatives to encourage taxpayers to fulfil their obligation towards nation building.

Meanwhile, the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Report 2019 placed India at the 63rd spot in Doing Business, compared to 77th rank in 2018. The World Bank Group in 2021 decided to discontinue publication of its 'Doing Business' rankings of country business climates after data irregularities in the 2018 and 2020 reports.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18109.65, up by 250.20 points or 1.40% after trading in a range of 17936.15 and 18141.40. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.40%, Indusind Bank up by 2.89%, TCS up by 2.85%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.73% and Bharti Airtel up by 2.58%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 1.73%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.95%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.54%, Britannia Industries down by 0.23% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.05% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 409.33 points or 1.95% to 21,400.97, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 378.87 points or 2.64% to 14,752.21, Straits Times advanced 19.82 points or 0.6% to 3,296.54, Shanghai Composite gained 22.58 points or 0.72% to 3,180.22 and KOSPI rose 60.22 points or 2.63% to 2,350.19, while Jakarta Composite lost 14.67 points or 0.22% to 6,669.89.