Bourses continue to trade in green in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued to trade in green in late afternoon session led by buying in Oil & Gas sector's stocks. Traders found support as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that India and the UK reviewed the progress of negotiations of the proposed free trade agreement (FTA), talks for which have reached the final stage. Negotiations between senior officials of India and the UK are on to bridge differences on issues such as rules of origin and services sector, with an aim to conclude the talks for the proposed FTA at the earliest. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green amid investors looked for cues from a slew of central bank meetings due this week. The U.S. Federal Reserve, Bank of England and Bank of Japan are set to hold their monetary policy meetings this week, with street expecting a status quo policy from the U.S. central bank and the U.K. central bank. European markets were trading higher despite ongoing volatility in the Middle East, with investors keeping a close eye on the latest inflation data out of Spain and Germany.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 63993.64, up by 210.84 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 63431.45 and 64124.09. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.01%, while Small cap index was up by 0.05%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.73%, Telecom up by 1.62%, Energy up by 1.30%, Oil & Gas up by 1.29% and Healthcare was up by 0.41%, while Auto down by 0.98%, Consumer Durables down by 0.57%, FMCG down by 0.41%, Consumer Discretionary down by 0.24% and Metal was down by 0.04% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 2.15%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.99%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.31%, Indusind Bank up by 1.07% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.80%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.08%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.45%, Axis Bank down by 1.42%, NTPC down by 1.16% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.79% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to promote green energy, Ministry of Coal and Ministry of New & Renewable Energy are all set to work together. During secretary-level joint meeting between the two ministries, it was decided that Ministry of New & Renewable Energy will provide technical, policy & capacity building support and Ministry of Coal will provide land, capital and undertake implementation of solar energy, green hydrogen and other renewable energy projects.

In the high-level meeting, it was decided that coal companies have de-coaled and surplus land masses and such land can be offered for setting up of green hydrogen projects by the private investors. Coal CPSEs also have de-coaled land mass in the open cast mines where there is naturally available water storage reservoir and head of average 100 meter height. By construction of top reservoir, such de-coaled mines can be converted into pump storage projects. It was decided to work faster to set up such projects.

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy will support Ministry of Coal and its CPSEs of capacity building training of engineers, technicians and other functionaries through National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE). It was also decided that suitable knowledge partnership through IIT Roorkee, Solar Energy Corporation of India and other resource agencies associated with MNRE shall also be provided.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19112.10, up by 64.85 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 18940.00 and 19141.75. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 3.88%, Reliance Industries up by 2.18%, Cipla up by 2.02%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.94% and Adani Enterprises up by 1.60%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.11%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.51%, Eicher Motors down by 1.47%, Axis Bank down by 1.38% and NTPC down by 1.20% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted added 15.07 points or 0.09% to 16,149.68, KOSPI increased 7.74 points or 0.33% to 2,310.55, Hang Seng advanced 7.63 points or 0.04% to 17,406.36, Shanghai Composite strengthened 3.77 points or 0.12% to 3,021.55 and Straits Times was up by 1.77 points or 0.06% to 3,063.62. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite plunged 50.59 points or 0.75% to 6,708.20 and Nikkei 225 was down by 294.73 points or 0.96% to 30,696.96.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 49.61 points or 0.68% to 7,340.89, France’s CAC rose 17.12 points or 0.25% to 6,812.50 and Germany’s DAX was up by 52.33 points or 0.36% to 14,739.74.