Indian equity benchmarks made positive start on Tuesday tracking global trend. Markets are trading higher with marginal gains in early deals on account of buying in Metal, Basic Materials and Realty stocks. Traders took encouragement with Care Ratings’ report that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth is likely to be 8.8 to 9 per cent in the current financial year, driven by agriculture and industry sectors. The country's economy had contracted by 7.3 per cent in fiscal 2020-21. Some support came in as the government's total tax collection in the April-June quarter grew about 86 per cent to more than Rs 5.57 lakh crore. Out of the total amount, collection of net direct tax stood at Rs 2.46 lakh crore and of indirect tax was at Rs 3.11 lakh crore. However, upside remained capped as Moody's Analytics said the second wave of COVID-19 may have a more lasting damage on the Indian economy and exports will once again be the foundation for recovery.
Most of the Asian markets are trading higher, following the positive cues from Wall Street overnight, as upbeat earnings news contributed to rebound along with continued optimism about the economy, despite some concerns about the spread of new coronavirus variants. Investors also await the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday for clues on the timing of stimulus tapering and the outlook for the global economy.
Back home, banking stocks were buzzing as Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat K Karad said non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans of banks have declined by Rs 61,180 crore to Rs 8.34 lakh crore at the end of March 31, 2021, as result of various steps taken by the government. In scrip specific developments, Tata Motors traded higher as its loss narrowed to Rs 4,451 crore in the first quarter ended June 2021 from a loss of Rs 8,438 crore in the same quarter last year. Also, L&T gained as it reported net profit of Rs 1,174 crore in the first quarter ended June 2021 as against Rs 303 crore in the same quarter last year, a rise of 287 per cent primarily on low-base effect.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52943.55, up by 91.28 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 52926.77 and 53024.70. There were 20 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.
The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.53%, while Small cap index was up by 0.91%.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.68%, Basic Materials up by 1.12%, Realty up by 0.90%, Consumer Durables up by 0.85%, Consumer discretionary up by 0.64%, while Power down by 0.12%, Capital Goods down by 0.06%, TECK down by 0.04% were the few losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.74%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.88%, ICICI Bank up by 0.86%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.78% and SBI up by 0.71%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.82%, HCL Tech. down by 0.69%, Nestle down by 0.40%, HDFC down by 0.39% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.31% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat K Karad has said non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans of banks have declined by Rs 61,180 crore to Rs 8.34 lakh crore at the end of March 31, 2021, as result of various steps taken by the government. Scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) were carrying NPAs worth Rs 8.96 lakh crore on their balance sheet at the end of March 2020.
He stated ‘Primarily as a result of transparent recognition of stressed assets as NPAs, gross NPAs of SCBs, as per RBI data on global operations, rose from Rs 3,23,464 crore as on 31.3.2015, to Rs 10,36,187 crore on 31.3.2018, and as a result of Government's strategy of recognition, resolution, recapitalisation and reforms, have since declined to Rs 9,33,779 crore on 31.3.2019, Rs. 8,96,082 crore as on 31.3.2020, and further to Rs 8,34,902 crore (provisional data) as on 31.3.2021’.
Besides, he said COVID-19 Regulatory Package announced by RBI permitted lending institutions to grant a moratorium of six months on payment of all instalments falling due between March 1 and August 31, 2020, in respect of all term loans and to defer the recovery of interest for the same period in respect of working capital facilities.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15863.10, up by 38.65 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 15851.45 and 15881.55. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.
The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.49%, Tata Steel up by 1.72%, JSW Steel up by 1.39%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 1.09% and ONGC up by 1.05%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.83%, HCL Tech. down by 0.72%, Nestle down by 0.52%, HDFC down by 0.37% and Britannia down by 0.23% were the top losers.
Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 rose 148.45 points 0.53% to or 27,981.74, Straits Times gained 15.54 points or 0.50% to 3,154.51, KOSPI surged 21.37 points or 0.66% to 3,246.32, Jakarta Composite added 7.27 points or 0.12% to 6,113.66 and Shanghai Composite was up by 4.96 points or 0.14% to 3,472.40. On the other hand, Hang Seng slipped 275.55 points or 1.05% to 25,916.77 and Taiwan Weighted lost 79.02 points or 0.45% to 17,324.54.