Sensex, Nifty trade near day’s high in early noon deals

Extending their gains, Indian equity benchmarks were trading near their intraday high points, supported by positive cues from other Asian markets along with heavy buying at Telecom and IT stocks. Domestic sentiments remained optimistic as Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is fast moving to become an economic powerhouse, driven by its extraordinary technological and innovative capabilities which the whole world has begun to acknowledge, particularly after the COVID vaccine success story. The street overlooked a private report stating that persistently high inflation remains the biggest economic concern this year even as most central banks are at or near the end-game for rate rises.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after the Bank of Japan left its monetary policy unchanged in the first rate-setting meeting chaired by Governor Kazuo Ueda. The Policy Board unanimously decided to maintain a negative interest rate of -0.1 percent on current accounts that financial institutions maintain at the central bank. The BoJ also unanimously decided to keep its yield curve control policy unchanged.

Back home, on the sectoral front, jewelry sector stocks were in watch amid reports that the government will soon notify a fresh window for the import of up to 140 MT of gold by manufacturers and traders of yellow metal from the UAE at a concessional rate under the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60783.25, up by 133.87 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 60507.83 and 60800.42. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.80%, while Small cap index was up by 0.73%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.49%, IT up by 1.09%, TECK up by 1.09%, Industrials up by 1.07% and Capital Goods up by 1.06%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.84% and Bankex down by 0.34% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 3.01%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.69%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.37%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.26% and Reliance Industries up by 1.22%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.87%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.26%, Titan Company down by 1.20%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.00% and ICICI Bank down by 0.72% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has stressed on the need to improve crop productivity as the country requires to increase farm production to meet domestic requirement and export to global markets. He highlighted that the agriculture production has increased substantially over the years thanks to the hardwork of farmers and scientists as well as policies of the government. He said the country's population will rise by 2050, and therefore there is a need to prepare a roadmap to meet the requirement of foodgrains and other farm products.

With the growing importance of India in the world, Tomar said there is a need to plan for global requirement as well. He said the crop yields have been improving but stressed on comparing the productivity with other countries and global average. He also said ‘we have to keep on increasing the production of food grains even if the land is less'. To achieve this, he said the role of agricultural scientists and new technologies are important.

The minister said technologies like drones and micro-irrigation should be promoted in the farm sector. Stating that there are about 85 per cent small farmers in the country, he said that they should get the benefit of technology and machineries. He highlighted various steps taken by the government in the last 9 years in the agriculture sector to boost farmers income. He added that the introduction of the Rs 1 lakh crore Agricultural Infrastructure Fund is also an important step in this direction, in which projects worth Rs 14,000 crore have been approved.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17965.35, up by 50.30 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 17885.30 and 17971.30. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 3.34%, Wipro up by 3.02%, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone up by 2.48%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 2.23% and Britannia Industries up by 1.78%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.90%, Titan Company down by 1.37%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.32%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.99% and Dr Reddy's Laboratories down by 0.75% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 398.76 points or 1.38% to 28,856.44, Taiwan Weighted added 167.69 points or 1.08% to 15,579.18, Hang Seng advanced 110.11 points or 0.55% to 19,950.39, Shanghai Composite strengthened 36.3 points or 1.1% to 3,322.18 and KOSPI increased 5.72 points or 0.23% to 2,501.53, while Straits Times fell 7.49 points or 0.23% to 3,274.54 and Jakarta Composite plunged 10.84 points or 0.16% to 6,934.64.