Indian equity benchmarks made positive start on Thursday tracking gains in Asian peers. Markets are trading higher with marginal gains in early deals. Buying in Capital Goods, Industrials and IT stocks were aiding the sentiments. Traders took note of report that garment exporters will continue to get a rebate on central and state taxes on their outward shipments as the government approved extension of RoSCTL scheme till March 2024. Trading activity was somewhat cautious amid the weekly option expiry. Also, some cautiousness came in with a private report that even though the second wave has ebbed, the increased presence of the Delta variant and the subsequent mutations of the coronavirus makes the third wave a real risk for the country.
On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading higher despite the lack of cues overnight from Wall Street, after the Beige Book revealed that the U.S. economy strengthened from late May to early July, with the pace of growth described as moderate to robust, boosting the prospects of a faster global economic rebound. Upside remained capped as traders remain cautious amid the continued acceleration in the new wave of coronavirus cases, particularly in Olympic city Tokyo.
Back home, shipping companies stocks were in limelight as the Union Cabinet approved a scheme to provide Rs 1,624 crore over five years as subsidy to Indian shipping companies in global tenders floated by ministries and CPSEs for import of government cargo. In scrip specific development, SeQuent Scientific jumped after the company announced the EUGMP approval of its tablets dosage manufacturing line in Turkey.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 53053.41, up by 149.36 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 52948.43 and 53066.29. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.
The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.23%, while Small cap index was up by 0.60%.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.23%, Industrials up by 1.28%, IT up by 0.47%, Bankex up by 0.34%, Basic Materials up by 0.31%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.63%, Energy down by 0.13%, PSU down by 0.03%, Telecom down by 0.03% were the top losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 4.88%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.60%, HCL Technologies up by 1.57%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.79% and HDFC Bank up by 0.67%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 0.68%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.58%, Titan Company down by 0.54%, ITC down by 0.51% and NTPC down by 0.33% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, rating agency Crisil in its latest report said the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) insistence on companies opening current accounts with banks is among the factors that has helped large lenders such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI raise their shares of the competitive corporate banking market in 2020. It stated apart from the RBI rules, the government's mega merger to reduce the number of state-owned banks has also helped in the trend.
In mid-2020, the RBI had come up with the circular that specified which bank can open a current account for a borrower, in order to check any misuse through multiple current accounts. Report mentioned several trends have contributed to the pick-up in market penetration among the leading banks, including the 'mega merger' of the country's public sector banks and the Reserve Bank of India's 'circular on current accounts', which essentially rules that banks can only open current accounts for companies to whom they are also major credit providers.
Besides, it said that even before the start of the global pandemic, India's corporate banking market was on a consolidation path, driven by decisive steps by regulators to solidify the country's banking sector, and the rapid evolution and growth of the leading private banks.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15896.85, up by 42.90 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 15855.00 and 15897.35. There were 28 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.
The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 4.95%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.67%, HCL Technologies up by 1.56%, Wipro up by 1.22% and HDFC Life Insurance up by 0.80%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.28%, Asian Paints down by 0.59%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.55%, Titan Company down by 0.48% and NTPC down by 0.46% were the top losers.
Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng surged 335.17 points or 1.21% to 28,122.63, Taiwan Weighted added 114.39 points or 0.64% to 17,960.14, KOSPI rose 11.87 points or 0.36% to 3,276.68, Jakarta Composite gained 43.62 points or 0.73% to 6,022.84 and Shanghai Composite was up by 8.21 points or 0.23% to 3,536.71. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 declined 273.92 points or 0.96% to 28,334.57 and Straits Times fell 12.69 points or 0.40% to 3,140.46.