Markets off day’s low; Nifty reclaims 17,700 mark

Indian markets witnessed recovery near intraday lows with Sensex and Nifty recapturing their crucial 60,200 and 17,700 levels respectively, as traders went for value buying. However, markets were still trading with a cut of over quarter a percent as traders remained anxious ahead of RBI Policy outcome. The MPC is likely to maintain its stance of “withdrawal of accommodation” and ease the pace of rate increases by RBI hiking rates by 25bps in Feb. Retail inflation is within the upper tolerance band of 6 percent and food inflation has eased off.

On the global front, European counters were trading mostly in red on lingering worries about higher interest rates. Amid much uncertainty about the U.S. economic will perform this year, investors now await a planned speech by Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the Economic Club of Washington later in the day for directional cues. Asian markets ended mostly in green, though gains remain capped as investors assessed the outlook for growth and interest rates in developed economies.

Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60281.77, down by 225.13 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 60063.49 and 60655.14. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.12%, while Small cap index was down by 0.29%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.48%, Capital Goods up by 0.39%, Industrials up by 0.14%, Bankex up by 0.14% and Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services up by 0.01%, while Metal down by 2.25%, Utilities down by 1.24%, Telecom down by 1.14%, FMCG down by 1.00% and Power down by 0.78% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.48%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.73%, TCS up by 0.62%, Indusind Bank up by 0.54% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.47%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 5.44%, ITC down by 2.61%, Sun Pharma down by 1.74%, HCL Tech down by 1.37% and Tata Motors down by 1.35% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Rameswar Teli has said that employment generation coupled with improving employability is the priority of the Government. Accordingly, the Government of India has taken various steps for generating employment in the country.

Further, Teli noted that creation and filling up of posts in the Central Ministries/Departments is the responsibility of the concerned Ministry/ Department and all Ministries/ Departments have been directed to take action in mission mode for filling up the vacant posts in time bound manner.

He stated that the Government of India has announced Aatmanirbhar Bharat package to provide stimulus to business and to mitigate the adverse impact of Covid-19. Under this package, the Government is providing fiscal stimulus of more than rupees twenty-seven lakh crore. This package comprises of various long term schemes/programmes/policies for making the country self-reliant and to create employment opportunities.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17717.10, down by 47.50 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 17652.55 and 17811.15. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 13.54%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.36%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.53%, Adani Ports up by 1.01% and Eicher Motors up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 5.24%, Hindalco down by 4.34%, ITC down by 2.53%, Sun Pharma down by 1.70% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.45% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Taiwan Weighted added 8.09 points or 0.05% to 15,400.91, Hang Seng advanced 76.54 points or 0.36% to 21,298.70, Shanghai Composite strengthened 9.39 points or 0.29% to 3,248.09, KOSPI increased 13.52 points or 0.55% to 2,451.71 and Jakarta Composite gained 61.51 points or 0.89% to 6,935.30. However, Straits Times fell 6.84 points or 0.2% to 3,379.09 and Nikkei 225 slipped 8.18 points or 0.03% to 27,685.47.

European markets were trading mostly lower, Germany’s DAX fell 18.36 points or 0.12% to 15,327.53 and France’s CAC was down 0.59 points or 0.01% to 7,137.09, while UK’s FTSE 100 rose 33.42 points or 0.43% to 7,870.37.