Indian equity benchmarks traded marginally in green in morning deals tracking gains in index-heavyweights Titan Company, Hindustan Unilever and SBI. Sentiments remained positive with Union minister Anurag Singh Thakur’s statement that India is open for stronger trade and investment with the European Union (EU). Portugal's Minister of State for Internationalization Eurico Brilhante Dias called on Thakur ahead of the 5th Joint Economic Commission India-Portugal meeting in Delhi. The meeting would discuss the ongoing negotiation process of trade and investment agreements between India and the EU. However, gains remain capped as Covid-19 cases continued to climb to unprecedented levels, raising the prospects of a wider lockdown in pockets of India. Some concern also came with ICRA Ratings’ report that an unabated increase in the COVID cases is likely to bring about fears of harsher lockdowns, which could impact the asset quality of retail loans especially for unsecured loans such as in the microfinance sector. It said this, in turn, would impact the fund-raising ability of the NBFCs and HFCs through securitisation of their assets.
On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after China reported a stronger than expected rise in prices that could prompt authorities to act to cool inflation. Back home, on the sectoral front, Aviation stocks were in focus as the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said the total demand for air travel in February measured in revenue passenger kilometres was down 74.7 per cent compared to February 2019.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 49872.15, up by 125.94 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 49499.99 and 49906.91. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.
The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.37%, while Small cap index was up by 0.88%.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.85%, FMCG up by 1.04%, PSU up by 0.79%, Healthcare up by 0.75% and Auto up by 0.63%, while Metal down by 1.06%, Power down by 0.25%, Basic Materials down by 0.22%, Energy down by 0.05% and Telecom down by 0.05% were the top losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan Company up by 2.33%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.17%, SBI up by 2.05%, Sun Pharma up by 1.71% and ONGC up by 1.26%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 1.60%, NTPC down by 1.10%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.96%, Asian Paints down by 0.92% and Reliance Industries down by 0.51% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, ICRA Ratings in its latest report has said that an unabated increase in the COVID cases is likely to bring about fears of harsher lockdowns, which could impact the asset quality of retail loans especially for unsecured loans such as in the microfinance sector. It said this, in turn, would impact the fund-raising ability of the NBFCs and HFCs through securitisation of their assets. It noted that securitisation is the process of pooling and repackaging homogenous illiquid financial assets into marketable securities that can be sold to investors.
According to the report, securitisation volume, which stood at Rs 85,000-90,000 crore during the financial year 2020-21, is expected to rise by 40-50 percent year-on-year in the current fiscal (2021-22). NBFCs and HFCs securitised volume stood at Rs 40,000 crore of their loans assets in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020-21, similar to the corresponding quarter of FY2019-20. Despite the healthy activity seen in the securitisation market in Q4 FY2021, the rising COVID-19 cases may again create uncertainty among the investors.
The report stated that due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant nationwide lockdown, securitisation volumes had seen an unprecedented fall in H1 FY2021 after two successive years (i.e. FY2019 and FY2020) of healthy volumes close to Rs 2 lakh crore each. It also said that the economic activities gradually resumed and loan disbursements gained momentum, even reaching pre-COVID levels for some NBFCs, the securitisation market saw a healthy uptick in volumes during H2 FY2021. It added that successful implementation of the vaccination programme and the ability of government agencies to arrest the rising infections would remain critical in the near term.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14895.15, up by 21.35 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 14806.35 and 14918.45. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.
The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 3.30%, Titan Co up by 2.61%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.23%, SBI up by 2.18% and Sun Pharma up by 1.67%. On the flip side, JSW Steel down by 2.43%, Tata Steel down by 2.05%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.61%, NTPC down by 1.24% and UPL down by 1.21% were the top losers.
Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 210.00 points or 0.72% to 28,798.07, Taiwan Weighted dropped 62.72 points or 0.37% to 16,863.72, Shanghai Composite declined 25.81 points or 0.74% to 3,456.74, KOSPI fell 5.31 points or 0.17% to 3,137.95 and Straits Times trembled 2.77 points or 0.09% to 3,183.63.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite soared 17.86 points or 0.29% to 6,089.58 and Nikkei 225 surged 185.87 points or 0.63% to 29,894.85.