Post Session: Quick Review

Bears held a tight grip over the Dalal Street on Thursday’s trading session, with both Sensex and Nifty ending sharply lower. After a cautious start, key indices traded in red terrain for the whole day, as rising coronavirus cases dampened sentiments in the markets. India has registered 53,419 fresh cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking to tally to 11,787,013, according to Worldometer. The death toll from the deadly infection jumped to 160,726. India has the 7th highest number of active cases globally.

In the second half of the trading session, Indian equity benchmarks cut some of their losses. Market participants got some relief, after Fitch Ratings in its latest report has revised India's Gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimate to 12.8 percent for the next fiscal year beginning April 1 from its previous estimate of 11 percent. It also said that India's recovery from the depths of the lockdown-induced recession in 2020 (calendar year) has been swifter than expected.

But, indices failed to hold recovery and ended in deep red, as traders were cautious, after India Ratings and Research said that privatisation of two public sector banks can impact their ratings as the government support to the two entities will disappear. The rating agency said the budget proposal to privatise the as yet unidentified PSBs “could lead to material negative migration of the long-term issuer ratings (mapped to senior instruments such as infrastructure bonds) and the ratings on Tier 2 instruments of the identified banks”.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in red, as investors grew wary about the economic outlook following a new round of coronavirus restrictions in the euro zone and regulatory concerns hit Chinese stocks. Asian markets finished mixed on Thursday, after Thailand's central bank left its key interest rate unchanged again on Wednesday in a bid to support a highly uncertain economic recovery. The Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to hold the policy rate unchanged at 0.50 percent. The previous change in the key rate was a quarter-point reduction in May last year amid the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The BSE Sensex ended at 48440.12, down by 740.19 points or 1.51% after trading in a range of 48236.35 and 49247.95. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 2.22%, while Small cap index was down by 1.85%.(Provisional)

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom down by 3.14%, Power down by 2.83%, Auto down by 2.80%, Energy down by 2.63% and Utilities down by 2.59%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 0.74%, ICICI Bank up by 0.70%, HDFC up by 0.25% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.21%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.98%, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.47%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.98%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.86% and NTPC down by 2.83% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, listing notable initiatives of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways which are environment friendly, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Nitin Gadkari has stressed that the country needs development but there is a need to maintain ecology and environment, as well.

The Minister talked about the key features of green highways, and said that these highways work towards goals of reduction in greenhouse gas emission, carbon footprint, and the use of non-renewable energy sources. Besides, Gadkari said that a Green Highway Mission has been constituted in NHAI, where plantation has been carried out along the highways.

Further, the Minister said that the Ministry is looking at ways to reduce use of cement and steel in road and bridge construction and new technology is being adopted by which one can avoid use of steel and cement. He also said that waste to wealth and waste to energy is one of the important sustainable solutions to tackle environmental issues. He said that the Government is working on priority for public transportation system on electricity.

The CNX Nifty ended at 14324.90, down by 224.50 points or 1.54% after trading in a range of 14264.40 and 14575.60. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 2.90%, ICICI Bank up by 0.71%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 0.69%, HDFC up by 0.20% and JSW Steel up by 0.15%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.95%, Indian Oil Corp. down by 3.86%, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.52%, Coal India down by 3.17% and Hero MotoCorp down by 3.04% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in red, France’s CAC decreased 13.91 points or 0.23% to 5,933.38 and Germany’s DAX was down by 16.61 points or 0.11% to 14,593.78. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 3.84 points or 0.06% to 6,716.73.

Asian markets finished mixed on Thursday, with the investors turned cautious due to concerns about potential US tax hikes and extended lock downs in Europe. Shanghai index retreated with sharp sell off in technological shares followed by the regulations imposed by US securities regulator to kick off foreign companies from American stock exchanges if they do not comply with auditing standards.