Bourses continue to trade in green in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued to trade in green in late afternoon session. Traders were seen piling up positions in Energy and Oil & Gas sectors while selling was witnessed in IT and Realty sectors stocks. Traders took note of report that India and UK have wrapped up the 13th round of negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement after four months of in-person and virtual meetings and the next round will be held in January. These negotiations (in 13th round) focused on complex issues including goods, services and investment. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green after several Fed officials said it's too soon to talk about rate cuts. European markets were trading mostly in green as investors react to the latest comments from Federal Reserve officials and look ahead to a slew of U.S. data this week for fresh insights on the Federal Reserve's next policy move.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 71526.54, up by 211.45 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 71071.98 and 71575.72. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.09%, while Small cap index was up by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 1.36%, FMCG up by 1.29%, Utilities up by 1.02%, PSU up by 0.89% and Oil & Gas was up by 0.77%, while IT down by 0.67%, Auto down by 0.65%, TECK down by 0.58%, Realty down by 0.45% and Telecom was down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Nestle up by 4.29%, NTPC up by 2.69%, Reliance Industries up by 1.72%, Indusind Bank up by 1.51% and SBI up by 1.16%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.37%, HCL Tech down by 1.00%, TCS down by 0.93%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.92% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.86% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Economic think tank the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) in its latest report has said that India's exports worth $775 million to the UK may be impacted due to Britain's decision to introduce carbon tax on products such as iron and steel, aluminium, fertiliser and cement, from 2027.  The UK government on December 18 decided to implement its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) starting 2027.

Economic think tank said the UK calls it the import carbon pricing mechanism. The CBAM will initially focus on sectors like iron, steel, aluminum, fertiliser, hydrogen, ceramics, glass, and cement. The UK, after the European Union (EU), will be the second economy to implement CBAM. Britain will soon work out detailed rules of the scheme, but it will in principle follow the EU model.

GTRI Co-Founder Ajay Srivastava said ‘the UK CBAM aims to prevent carbon leakage. Carbon leakage is the phenomenon of companies moving production to countries with weaker environmental regulations to avoid paying carbon prices in the UK. Thus, the main aim is to ensure imports are subject to the same rate of carbon tax as the UK producers pay through UK's Emission Trading System (ETS).’ He added that by doing so, the UK government hopes to provide fair competition for its domestic manufacturers and ensure that its decarbonisation efforts contribute to a real reduction in global emissions. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 21475.65, up by 57.00 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 21337.75 and 21487.80. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Nestle up by 4.23%, Coal India up by 2.89%, NTPC up by 2.69%, Tata Consumer up by 2.68% and Reliance Industries up by 1.69%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.68%, SBI Life down by 1.61%, Wipro down by 1.45%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.00% and Adani Ports down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 460.41 points or 1.39% to 33,219.39, Jakarta Composite gained 35.67 points or 0.5% to 7,155.20, Straits Times rose 6.29 points or 0.2% to 3,119.52, KOSPI increased 1.69 points or 0.07% to 2,568.55 and Shanghai Composite was up by 1.59 points or 0.05% to 2,932.39. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted lost 75.48 points or 0.43% to 17,576.55 and Hang Seng was down by 124.23 points or 0.75% to 16,505.00.

European markets were trading mostly in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 20.32 points or 0.27% to 7,634.80 and Germany’s DAX was up by 58.56 points or 0.35% to 16,709.11. On the flip side, France’s CAC was down by 3.47 points or 0.05% to 7,565.39.