Bourses continue to move forward in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued to move forward in late afternoon session as the investors ignored IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva’s statement at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that global economic growth would bottom out this year. Continued buying in metal stocks lifted the mood of the markets. Sentiments were positive as the Bank of Japan surprised markets by keeping its yield tolerance band unchanged. Investors now turn their attention to Budget expectations, which likely to influence the market trends. The ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland also in focused. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green with Tokyo soaring and the yen tumbling after the Bank of Japan decided against further tweaking monetary policy. European markets were trading mostly in red as investors awaited a slew of U.S. economic data and more earnings this week for directional cues.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61,085.16, up by 429.44 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 60569.19 and 61108.80. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.37%, while Small cap index was up by 0.28%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.05%, Capital Goods up by 1.03%, Industrials up by 1.01%, Telecom up by 0.82% and TECK was up by 0.60%, while Realty down by 0.82%, Utilities down by 0.40%, Power down by 0.13% and Auto was down by 0.03% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.47%, Wipro up by 1.79%, HDFC Bank up by 1.57%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.56% and HDFC up by 1.42%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.41%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.73%, Nestle down by 0.38%, Indusind Bank down by 0.33% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.29% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has said that it is too premature to think that India will replace China when it comes to influencing global economic growth. However, he said the situation may change going forward as India is already the world's fifth largest economy, it is growing and has the potential to keep expanding.

Rajan also said any recovery in the Chinese economy would definitely boost the global growth prospects. He said policymakers at this point of time are looking at the labour market and also at the housing market. Referring to the US, he said housing sales are not happening there, but prices are not falling. He said there are still 12 months to go and if China improves, that could be good.

He further said China is working its way through pandemic and there would be a Chinese recovery this year, probably as early as March or April. Some of that would be in domestic services which may not have any impact outside. But any improvement in manufacturing may have some impact by way of softening prices outside.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18,170.80, up by 117.50 points or 0.65% after trading in a range of 18032.45 and 18180.40. There were 34 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remain unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 2.60%, Hindalco up by 2.41%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.78%, Wipro up by 1.75% and HDFC Bank up by 1.57%. On the flip side, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.48%, Tata Motors down by 1.34%, Adani Enterprises down by 1.03%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.83% and Cipla down by 0.81% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Nikkei 225 surged 652.44 points or 2.44% to 26,791.12, Hang Seng advanced 100.36 points or 0.46% to 21,678.00, Taiwan Weighted added 5.92 points or 0.04% to 14,932.93, Straits Times rose 2.87 points or 0.09% to 3,283.38 and Shanghai Composite was up by 0.17 points or 0.01% to 3,224.41. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite plunged 1.55 points or 0.02% to 6,765.79 and KOSPI was down by 11.07 points or 0.47% to 2,368.32.

European markets were trading mostly in red, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 0.17 points or 0% to 7,850.86, France’s CAC rose 0.41 points or 0.01% to 7,077.57 and Germany’s DAX was down by 13.01 points or 0.09% to 15,174.06.