The Indian equity benchmarks once again entered into positive territory, with the Sensex and the Nifty gaining above 250 and 50 points, respectively. Traders took support, as Moody's said India's economy is likely to grow by 12 percent in 2021 following a 7.1 percent contraction last year, as near-term prospects have turned more favourable. Domestic and external demand has been on the mend since the easing of restrictions, which has led to improved manufacturing output in recent months. Moody's expect private consumption and nonresidential investment to materially pick up over the next few quarters and strengthen the domestic demand revival in 2021. On the sectoral front, automobile industry remain in focused, as Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said the vehicle scrapping policy will be a ‘win-win’ policy that will help improve fuel efficiency and reduce pollution. The Road Transport, Highways and MSMEs Minister said the policy will also lead to an increase in the country's automobile industry turnover to Rs 10 lakh crore from the current Rs 4.5 lakh crore.
On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as investors appeared to be jolted by several issues, from the continued prospect of rising inflation to a volatile US-China meeting and stubborn coronavirus flare-ups in Europe. European markets were trading lower following a sharp selloff in the tech sector on Wall Street while investors also fret about the increase in Covid-19 cases throughout the region.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 49496.55, up by 280.03 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 48586.93 and 49687.88. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.
The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.46%, while Small cap index was down by 0.25%.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 2.47%, FMCG up by 2.22%, Utilities up by 2.00%, Energy up by 1.58% and Oil & Gas was up by 1.12%, while Realty down by 1.89%, Capital Goods down by 0.68%, Consumer Durables down by 0.57%, Auto down by 0.57% and Consumer Discretionary was down by 0.42% were the losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 4.58%, Power Grid up by 4.07%, ITC up by 3.40%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.99% and Reliance Industries up by 2.08%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 1.76%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.66%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.06%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.05% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.79% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, with an aim to strengthen the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in India, the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have unveiled new initiatives. A Statement of Intent (SoI) was signed between NITI Aayog and Amazon Internet Services (AISPL), which undertakes the resale and marketing of AWS Cloud services in India.
As per the SoI, AIM will leverage AWS Educate, Amazon’s global program that provides resources for students and educators to accelerate cloud-related learning. This program will introduce the fundamentals of cloud computing such as cloud storage, virtual compute power, web hosting, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and virtual reality (VR), to students at more than 7000 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) in India.
AWS will also conduct Faculty Development Programs (FDPs) for the personnel in-charge at the ATLs, and provide resources and tools at each ATL to expedite student learning, and enable them to create and build solutions on the cloud.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14653.65, up by 95.80 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 14350.10 and 14700.55. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.
The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 4.53%, Power Grid up by 3.94%, ITC up by 3.24%, JSW Steel up by 3.14% and UPL up by 3.07%. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.62%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.59%, GAIL India down by 1.33%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.15% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.07% were the top losers.
Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Nikkei 225 slipped 424.70 points or 1.41% to 29,792.05, Hang Seng decreased 414.78 points or 1.41% to 28,990.94, Taiwan Weighted dropped 217.60 points or 1.34% to 16,070.24, Shanghai Composite declined 58.41 points or 1.69% to 3,404.66, KOSPI fell 26.48 points or 0.86% to 3,039.53 and Straits Times was down by 0.48 points or 0.02% to 3,137.18. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 8.33 points or 0.13% to 6,356.16.
European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 34.85 points or 0.51% to 6,744.83, France’s CAC decreased 29.67 points or 0.49% to 6,033.12 and Germany’s DAX was down by 49.68 points or 0.34% to 14,725.84.