Sensex, Nifty stage recovery in early noon deals

Trimming most of their losses, Indian equity benchmarks staged recovery in early afternoon deals, on the back of buying at Metal and Oil & Gas counters. Losses got cut as traders took support with a private report stating that India’s economy picked up speed in December as business conditions improved, marking a rebound for the South Asian nation that had showed signs of a slowdown the preceding month. Besides, India has reiterated its position as a resilient economy with a strong leadership providing stable policy to the global investors at the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos. India’s focus areas at WEF this year are investment opportunities, infrastructural landscape and its inclusive & sustainable growth story. However, indices unable to turn positive with trade being weak, as concerns came after IMF's Gita Gopinath said that the global economy is facing a unique situation due to unprecedented level of high inflation and that is causing tension between monetary and fiscal policies.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, even after Japan's trade deficit narrowed to a five-month low in December but the whole year shortfall was the biggest on record. The official data revealed that exports increased 11.5 percent on a yearly basis in December, slower than the 20.0 percent rise in November. The annual growth was forecast to slow more markedly to 10.1 percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60944.75, down by 100.99 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 60716.55 and 61032.47. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell by 0.09%, while Small cap index was up by 0.02%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.55%, Oil & Gas up by 0.37%, Energy up by 0.24%, Industrials up by 0.18% and Capital Goods up by 0.14%, while Utilities down by 1.37%, Power down by 1.15%, Consumer Durables down by 0.84%, FMCG down by 0.83% and Telecom down by 0.54% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.02%, HDFC Bank up by 0.69%, Asian Paints up by 0.53%, HDFC up by 0.37% and Power Grid Corporation of India up by 0.23%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 2.33%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.19%, Titan Company down by 1.01%, NTPC down by 0.83% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.82% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that India took a very pragmatic approach in dealing with the humanitarian and economic crises triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and that has ensured moderate inflation and high growth in the country. He also said India's economy has been resilient and the policy framework has been for a sustained growth with a very moderate inflation.

The minister said as the pandemic hit the world and triggered an economic as well as humanitarian crises, many countries began unleashing their purses with big stimulus packages but that led to a gold-plated rush resulting in huge inflationary pressures. However, he said India took a very pragmatic approach, while understanding that capital is very scarce, irrespective of what some experts may say.

Vaishnaw said the Indian government focused on vulnerable population for financial aid, free food and free vaccines and all of that was done on digital platforms under the leadership of the government. He said ‘Those decisions have shaped the destiny of our country and put us on a path of resilient and sustainable growth. We have been able to achieve high growth and moderate inflation because of the pragmatic approach we took.’ He added that ‘Our prime minister also ensured that fiscal policy and monetary policy moved in tandem, which many other countries couldn't do. We ensured that moderate inflation was the prime target and that too for a longer 10-year period time frame and it ensured that we returned to a high growth rate quickly.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18129.35, down by 36.00 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 18063.75 and 18155.20. There were 14 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining, while one stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were UPL up by 1.96%, ONGC up by 1.37%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 1.21%, Tata Steel up by 1.18% and SBI Life Insurance Company up by 0.93%. On the flip side, Adani Enterprises down by 4.24%, Indusind Bank down by 2.36%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.25%, Tata Consumer Products down by 1.33% and Adani Ports & SEZ down by 1.11% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Jakarta Composite gained 45.06 points or 0.67% to 6,810.85, KOSPI increased 12.02 points or 0.5% to 2,380.34 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 11.06 points or 0.34% to 3,235.47, while Straits Times fell 11.35 points or 0.35% to 3,278.20, Hang Seng declined 25.73 points or 0.12% to 21,652.27 and Nikkei 225 slipped 385.89 points or 1.46% to 26,405.23.