Benchmarks wipe out opening losses; trade flat with positive bias in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks extended their previous session’s weakness with negative start on Wednesday tracking sell off in the US markets overnight ahead of US Fed chair Jerome Powell’s congressional testimony. Soon, markets wipeout their losses and are trading flat with positive bias in early deals. Foreign fund inflows aided sentiments. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 574.28 crore on March 5, provisional data from the NSE showed. Some support also came in with buying interest in the banking stocks amid CareEdge Ratings’ report that bad loans of banks in India have reached record lows due to recoveries from defaulters and regularisation of payments many-fold. 

On the global front, Asian markets recovered from their opening losses and are trading mostly higher in early deals. Initial weakness was due to broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders continued to cash in on recent strength in the markets. Now, investors are looking ahead to the US Fed Chair Jerome Powell's congressional testimony this week, which would provide clues about the outlook for interest rates.

Back home, the space stocks are in focus after the government notified the amended FDI norms in the space sector, clearing the deck for 100 per cent overseas investment in making components for satellites, 74 per cent in satellite manufacturing and operations, and 49 per cent in launch vehicles. In stock specific development, JM Financial traded under pressure as RBI prohibits firm from financing against shares and debentures.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73741.65, up by 64.52 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 73448.09 and 73765.95. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.62%, while Small cap index was down by 1.12%.

The sole gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Bankex up by 0.72%, while Power down by 1.21%, Oil & Gas down by 0.99%, Utilities down by 0.98%, Telecom down by 0.95%, Realty down by 0.88% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.58%, ICICI Bank up by 1.36%, Axis Bank up by 1.03%, Nestle up by 1.00% and Indusind Bank up by 0.73%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.42%, NTPC down by 1.07%, Tata Steel down by 1.05%, Wipro down by 1.03% and Bajaj Finance down by 1.01% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, highlighting the journey of change between India and the US, especially the significant progress made in the last 20 years, India’s Deputy Ambassador to the US, Sripriya Ranganathan has said the relationship between the world's two largest democracies now can be ‘as ambitious as we choose to be’. She also appealed to Indian and Indian-origin students at Stanford University to stay connected with India.

Deputy Ambassador Ranganathan said ‘The broader India-US strategic partnership, I think, we have now reached a stage where we can say that the partnership has come into its own. We have achieved a lot over the past 70 years. But what we have achieved over the past 20 years has been at a different level altogether.’ She said ‘And I would say that now we are at a stage where we can be as ambitious as we choose to be. We can decide to set our goals, set our sights on targets that were unimaginable a few years ago, and we can’.

She said ‘Not only can we be ambitious, but we can also be confident that we can make these things work, we can bring to implementation ideas that would've seemed outlandish even 20 years ago’, as she cited the example of the India-US relationship in the field of space and the area of emerging and critical technologies, sectors in which scientists and policymakers from both the countries are actively engaged.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22363.90, up by 7.60 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 22289.40 and 22365.85. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.61%, ICICI Bank up by 1.37%, Nestle up by 1.04%, Axis Bank up by 0.99% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.94%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.43%, Power Grid down by 1.42%, BPCL down by 1.12%, NTPC down by 1.09% and Bajaj Finance down by 1.03% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Hang Seng jumped 354.31 points or 2.15% to 16,516.95, Taiwan Weighted rose 75.83 points or 0.39% to 19,462.75, Straits Times gained 32.91 points or 1.05% to 3,140.01, Jakarta Composite added 17.31 points or 0.24% to 7,264.77 and Shanghai Composite was up by 3.56 points or 0.12% to 3,051.35. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 fell 21.25 points or 0.05% to 40,076.38 and KOSPI was down by 7.72 points or 0.29% to 2,641.68.