Indian equity benchmarks extended their previous session’s gains with record high opening on Tuesday tracking gains in Asian peers. Markets are trading in fine fettle in early deals with gain of over half a percent each on account of sustained buying in IT, Capital Goods and TECK stocks. Sensex and Nifty are trading above 62,100 and 18,550 marks, respectively. Sentiments got boost as Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje said the Centre has infused Rs 1,31,000 crore to boost agriculture and allied sectors with special emphasis on becoming an export-oriented economy as India has tremendous potential to satiate global demand. Adding more optimism, preliminary data of the commerce ministry showed that the country's exports rose by 40.5 per cent to $15.13 billion during October 1-14 on account of healthy performance by key sectors such as petroleum products, engineering and chemicals. Also, amid a growing perception, partly caused by a view expressed by some senior government functionaries against another instalment of a large demand-side fiscal stimulus in the current fiscal, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman indicated that the government was indeed open to accelerating the economic recovery through such largesse, if required.
Most of the Asian markets trading higher following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, as the nation prepares to open up to boost economic activity, even as the prospects of another wave of coronavirus infections looms. Back home, aviation industry stocks were in focus as the country's aviation regulator -- the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said around 70.66 lakh domestic passengers travelled by air in the month of September, 5.44 per cent higher than 67.01 lakh who travelled in August. In scrip specific development, L&T Infotech jumped as it reported a 20.8% YoY increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 551.7 crore for the quarter ended September.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62111.34, up by 345.75 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 61964.41 and 62159.78. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.
The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index surged 0.97%, while Small cap index was up by 0.88%.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.76%, Capital Goods up by 1.65%, TECK up by 1.53%, Power up by 1.32%, Utilities up by 1.23%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.61%, FMCG down by 0.08% were the only losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.01%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.36%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.69%, HCL Technologies up by 1.60% and Axis Bank up by 1.14%. On the flip side, ITC down by 3.14%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.52%, Titan Company down by 1.00%, Power Grid down by 0.52% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.27% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, in order to boost agriculture and allied sectors, Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje said that the Centre has infused Rs 1,31,000 crore with special emphasis on becoming an export-oriented economy as India has tremendous potential to satiate global demand. Karandlaje e-inaugurated various projects of the public works department, costing Rs 519.50 lakh and laid e-foundation stones of different projects worth Rs 198.2 lakh. She also inaugurated a pasteurised compost unit under the Trikuta mushroom corridor project at Burmal.
The Union minister of state for agriculture and farmers welfare said the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to uplift the agriculture community by providing financial as well as technological support under various schemes run by the central government. While highlighting the achievements of India in the agriculture sector, she said that India is making remarkable progress in this field which has further improved its ranking in terms of exporting agriculture-based products. She added India now stands at the ninth position globally.
Projecting the recent stride made by India in agriculture production, the minister said the agriculture sector is now contributing over 20 per cent in India's GDP which is expected to grow further. She said that for smooth functioning of farmer producer organisation (FPO), a separate corpus will be created through which the staff appointed shall be remunerated besides provision of low interest rate soft loans and subsidies shall be made. The minister emphasised on the need for technological interventions like mechanised farming, branding, marketing, processing, value addition to farm products etc so that farmers could get remunerative prices for their produce.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18574.90, up by 97.85 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 18534.65 and 18604.45. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining.
The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 2.85%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.14%, Wipro up by 2.05%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.81% and HCL Tech. up by 1.59%. On the flip side, ITC down by 3.26%, Eicher Motors down by 1.66%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.54%, Titan Co down by 1.00% and Divi's Lab down by 0.70% were the top losers.
Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 228.63 points or 0.79% to 29,254.09, Straits Times rose 16.20 points or 0.51% to 3,190.02, Hang Seng jumped 301.20 points or 1.19% to 25,710.95, Taiwan Weighted advanced 193.56 points or 1.16% to 16,899.02, KOSPI added 20.27 points or 0.67% to 3,026.95 and Shanghai Composite was up by 25.09 points or 0.70% to 3,593.23, while Jakarta Composite fell 32.82 points or 0.49% to 6,625.95.
