Bourses add gains in late afternoon session

Indian markets once again added gains in late afternoon session led by gains in banking, metal and oil & gas counters. Positive global markets too lent support to Indian indices. Traders were expecting fall in India's consumer inflation in March. Traders took note of report that India's G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant said India will use the G20 narrative to push its digital transformation story to the rest of the world with an objective of transforming the lives of people in the Global South. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green despite uncertainty over the future trajectory of the Federal Reserve's rate hikes and growing risks of a U.S. recession. European markets were trading higher with investors returning from a long holiday weekend to face a week full of crucial economic data, including March inflation for Germany and the U.S., providing more hints on the global interest rate trajectory.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60102.56, up by 256.05 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 59919.88 and 60267.68. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.13%, while Small cap index was up by 0.51%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.55%, Metal up by 1.41%, Utilities up by 1.38%, Oil & Gas up by 0.95% and FMCG was up by 0.83%, while IT down by 1.05%, TECK down by 1.01%, Consumer Durables down by 0.30% and Capital Goods was down by 0.29% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 4.92%, ITC up by 2.15%, ICICI Bank up by 1.68%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.36% and Tata Steel up by 1.29%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.64%, Infosys down by 1.46%, HCL Tech down by 1.32%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.94% and Wipro down by 0.87% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, union Minister Jitendra Singh has said that StartUps in India grew 300 times in the last 9 years. There were just around 350 StartUps before 2014, but after rolled out of special StartUp scheme in 2016, there has been a quantum jump in StartUps to more than 90,000 with more than 100 Unicorns.

The minister further added that simultaneously Prime Minister Modi opened up the Space sector for private participation leading to more than 100 StartUps in the Space sector within just about three years. Similarly, Biotech StartUps went up from around 50 to nearly 6,000.

Appreciating the efforts of the Department of Science and Technology and National Innovation Foundation (NIF) for organising the Festival of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (FINE), Singh noted that it is a unique effort to promote Science, Technology and Innovation even among those who may not be highly educated in the formal sense or may have not even be science students but who possess inherent talent and inborn aptitude for innovation and entrepreneurship, which also may become a source of livelihood for them.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17706.45, up by 82.40 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 17655.15 and 17748.75. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 4.92%, JSW Steel up by 3.33%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.62%, Eicher Motors up by 2.41% and ITC up by 2.25%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.64%, Infosys down by 1.51%, HCL Tech down by 1.30%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.99% and Tata Motors down by 0.93% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Nikkei 225 surged 289.71 points or 1.04% to 27,923.37, Hang Seng advanced 154.04 points or 0.75% to 20,485.24, Taiwan Weighted added 37.71 points or 0.24% to 15,913.88, KOSPI increased 35.78 points or 1.4% to 2,547.86, Jakarta Composite gained 27.44 points or 0.4% to 6,798.68 and Straits Times was up by 0.29 points or 0.01% to 3,294.72. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 1.79 points or 0.05% to 3,313.57.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 32.79 points or 0.42% to 7,774.35, France’s CAC rose 61.04 points or 0.83% to 7,385.79 and Germany’s DAX was up by 92.98 points or 0.59% to 15,690.87.