Bourses trade near neutral lines with positive bias in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets traded near neutral lines with positive bias in late afternoon session. Consumer Price Inflation and speculations on interest rates influencing investor sentiments. Buying in IT counters mainly helped markets to wipe out losses. As for broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index continued to trade in green. Traders took support after report stated that Imports in January declined by 3.63 per cent to $50.66 billion, as against $52.57 billion in the same month last year. On the global front, all Asian markets were trading lower as markets weighed the risk of sticky inflation on central banks' monetary policy and the likelihood of economic recession, following the release of the latest CPI numbers from the U.S. Data from the U.S. on Tuesday had shown that inflation cooled in January, but less than what markets had expected. European markets were trading mostly in green with investors digesting inflation data from both the U.S. and the U.K., while banking giant Barclays reported a sharp slide in annual profit.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61,071.53, up by 39.27 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 60750.32 and 61109.26. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.20%, while Small cap index was up by 0.12%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.73%, Auto up by 0.66%, IT up by 0.63%, Telecom up by 0.55% and TECK was up by 0.42%, while Power down by 1.13%, Utilities down by 0.92%, FMCG down by 0.73%, Capital Goods down by 0.66% and Industrials was down by 0.35% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 5.04%, Reliance Industries up by 1.87%, Bajaj Finserv up by 0.89%, Titan Company up by 0.68% and HCL Tech up by 0.68%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.45%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.24%, Sun Pharma down by 1.08%, HDFC down by 1.03% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.94% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal has said that the Government will expedite enforcement of all the Quality Control Order (QCO) on the man-made fibre (MMF) products, suggesting that different segments of the value chain need to be supportive to each other’s requirements and challenges for the holistic growth of the sector.

Besides, Goyal cited the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for MMF apparel, MMF fabrics and products of technical textiles, as the Government’s flagship intervention to augment the size and scale of the domestic MMF sector and assured of providing dedicated handholding support to the PLI beneficiaries through specially designated Ministry of Textiles officers for the purpose.

Meanwhile, Goyal held the first meeting with the newly constituted Textile Advisory Group at the Vanijya Bhavan, New Delhi. In the meeting, SIMA on behalf of spinners raised the issue of revision of standard input output norms under Advance Authorization Scheme. SRTEPC on behalf of fabric and made-ups, raised the issue of shortage of capacities for quality processing and effluent treatment facilities. AEPC also raised the issue of shortage of availability of high quality processed fabric.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17,951.45, up by 21.60 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 17853.80 and 17959.30. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 5.27%, Apollo Hospital up by 4.64%, Eicher Motors up by 4.01%, Reliance Industries up by 1.81% and SBI Life up by 1.24%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.41%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.20%, Sun Pharma down by 1.18%, HDFC down by 1.09% and ONGC down by 1.01% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading lower, Hang Seng declined 301.59 points or 1.45% to 20,812.17, Taiwan Weighted lost 221.59 points or 1.44% to 15,432.89, Nikkei 225 slipped 100.91 points or 0.37% to 27,501.86, KOSPI dropped 37.74 points or 1.55% to 2,427.90, Straits Times fell 36.93 points or 1.11% to 3,281.27, Jakarta Composite plunged 27.32 points or 0.4% to 6,914.54 and Shanghai Composite was down by 12.79 points or 0.39% to 3,280.49.

European markets were trading mostly in green, France’s CAC rose 42.73 points or 0.59% to 7,256.54 and Germany’s DAX was up by 54.02 points or 0.35% to 15,434.58. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 10.26 points or 0.13% to 7,943.59.