Bourses continue upmove in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their upmove in late afternoon session. Among heavy-weights, Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Unilever and HDFC exhibited a smart performance. As for broader indices, BSE Small cap index and BSE Mid cap index were trading under selling pressure. Traders overlooked report that China reported its second-lowest annual economic growth in almost 50 years. Meanwhile, investors are watching to see if Japan's central bank will alter its longstanding policy of keeping its key interest rate at minus 0.1 per cent when it wraps up a policy meeting on Wednesday. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as caution prevailed ahead of a Bank of Japan policy meeting. European markets were trading lower with concerns about the global economy high on the agenda at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60469.95, up by 376.98 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 60072.34 and 60578.70. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.35%, while Small cap index was down by 0.20%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.43%, Utilities up by 1.20%, Power up by 1.15%, Industrials up by 0.91% and FMCG was up by 0.81%, while PSU down by 0.86%, Metal down by 0.47%, Consumer Durables down by 0.41%, Healthcare down by 0.36% and Bankex was down by 0.24% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.26%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.11%, HDFC up by 1.65%, HCL Tech up by 1.43% and HDFC Bank up by 1.41%. On the flip side, SBI down by 1.98%, Indusind Bank down by 1.25%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.21%, Tata Steel down by 0.83% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.77% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal has said that the Government today thinks like a startup, relentlessly focusing on newer and better ideas and striving to saturate them throughout the country to improve efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, transparency and integrity of systems and processes.

The Minister observed that many more innovative ideas and initiatives must be nurtured to ensure that the nation grew at a much faster pace than ever before in the Amritkaal and to meet the aspirations of a young India. He said that the initiatives taken by the government under the leadership of the Prime Minister in the last few years, were timely and had been successful in building the foundation for a powerful, resurgent India, a nation recognized as an emerging growth story, set to drive global growth.

Further, the Minister said that the government came up with highly impactful innovations like COWIN app, One Nation, One Ration Card (ONORC), PM GatiShakti National Master Plan, UPI which has powered so many startups and unicorns, Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) which will democratise e-Commerce and save millions of mom and pop stores across the country and JAM Trinity that ensured that the truly deserving received assistance from the government directly, ushering in honesty, integrity and transparency in entire system.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17999.10, up by 104.25 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 17886.95 and 18029.95. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.43%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.06%, HDFC up by 1.74%, HCL Tech up by 1.60% and HDFC Bank up by 1.49%. On the flip side, SBI down by 2.00%, Indusind Bank down by 1.23%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.22%, Tata Steel down by 0.88% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.76% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Hang Seng declined 169.08 points or 0.78% to 21,577.64, KOSPI dropped 20.47 points or 0.86% to 2,379.39, Straits Times fell 5.46 points or 0.17% to 3,278.14 and Shanghai Composite was down by 3.35 points or 0.1% to 3,224.24. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted added 5.92 points or 0.04% to 14,932.93, Jakarta Composite gained 79.28 points or 1.17% to 6,767.34 and Nikkei 225 was up by 316.36 points or 1.21% to 26,138.68.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 9.64 points or 0.12% to 7,850.43, France’s CAC fell 18.11 points or 0.26% to 7,025.20 and Germany’s DAX was down by 39.79 points or 0.26% to 15,094.25.