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Indices clock another session of record closing high on Monday

Indian equity benchmarks surged for sixth session in a row and clocked another session of record closing high on Monday, as a budget-inspired rally continued, with Auto, Metal, Industrials and Telecom shares leading the broad-based rally. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening and held on to gains, amid a positive trend in global markets. Sentiments got a boost with Expenditure Secretary T V Somanathan’s statement that the government is confident of lowering the fiscal deficit to 4.5 per cent of GDP by 2025-26 fiscal, considering a nominal GDP growth of 10 per cent every year. Sentiments remained up-beat with Economic Affairs Secretary Tarun Bajaj’s statement that the government is sticking to the target of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25 and emphasis on infrastructure sector and other initiatives taken in Budget 2021-22 are aimed at achieving the goal.

Investor sentiment was also buoyed after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government will work with the Reserve Bank for execution of the bank privatisation plan announced in the budget. She also said that the government has no plan to form any bank investment company to house the government stakes in banks. Some support also came with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s statement that the government aims to increase the MSME sector's share in the GDP to 40 percent to benefit the rural poor. Currently, around 6.5 crores micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) contribute 30 per cent to the GDP. Adding to the optimism, the Business Confidence Index (BCI) developed by the Delhi-based economic think tank NCAER rose 29.6 percent between second and third quarter of the current financial year on the back of rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in different countries, including India.

On the global front, all European markets were trading in green. Asian markets ended mostly higher on Monday, amid optimism that falling coronavirus infection rates in different parts of the world and the continued rollout of vaccines will provide a major boost to economic recovery. Stimulus news remained in focus as well after U.S. lawmakers approved a budget outline that will allow them to muscle President Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package through in the coming weeks without Republican support. Besides, the Ministry of Finance said Japan had a current account surplus of 1,165.6 billion yen in December, up 113.9 percent on year. That beat expectations for a surplus of 1,040 billion yen following the 1,878.4 billion yen surplus in the previous month. Exports were up 0.3 percent on year to 6,561.5 billion yen after sinking 3.4 percent in November. Imports fell an annual 13.5 percent to 5,596.4 billion yen after dropping 13.6 percent in the previous month.

Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 617.14 points or 1.22% to 51,348.77, while the CNX Nifty was up by 191.55 points or 1.28% to 15,115.80.

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 51,523.38 and 51,146.67, respectively and there were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.50%, while Small cap index was up by 1.53%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 3.07%, Metal up by 3.00%, Industrials up by 2.56%, Telecom up by 2.19% and Consumer Discretionary up by 2.12%, while FMCG down by 0.53% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 7.23%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.24%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.77%, Power Grid Corporation up by 2.61% and Infosys up by 2.52%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.43%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.32%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.70%, ITC down by 0.49% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.22% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Hardeep Singh Puri has said India’s exports of pharmaceutical products during April-December 2020-21 grew by 12.43 per cent to $17.57 billion. He said India’s exports of pharmaceutical products have not declined and they are growing consistently.

He said during 2019-20, India’s exports of pharmaceuticals were $20.58 billion with a growth rate of 7.57 per cent over the previous year. Total pharma exports during April-December 2020-21 were at $17.57 billion, registering a growth rate of 12.43 per cent over the same period of the previous year.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash said that during the last three years, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) equity inflow increased from $44.85 billion in 2017-18 to $49.97 billion in 2019-20. According to the data, FDI in defence industries stood at $0.63 million. It was $2.20 million in 2019-20. The retail trading sector attracted $1.26 billion in April-November 2020-21 period, while telecommunications received $19.65 million.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 15,159.90 and 15,041.05 and there were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 7.27%, Hindalco up by 6.45%, Tata Motors up by 6.35%, Shree Cement up by 4.86% and JSW Steel up by 3.84%. On the flip side, Britannia Industries down by 1.92%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.45%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.29%, Divis Lab down by 1.06% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.74% were the top losers.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 45.99 points or 0.71% to 6,535.32, France’s CAC increased 29.29 points or 0.52% to 5,688.55 and Germany’s DAX increased 21.87 points or 0.16% to 14,078.59.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Monday as slowing global corona virus infection rates and continued rollout of vaccines have buoyed the market sentiments. Further, hopes for further fiscal stimulus from United States also fuels market optimism of a faster global recovery. The US lawmakers have approved a budget outline that will allow them to muscle President Biden's $1.9 trillion corona virus relief package through in the coming weeks without Republican support. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi believes that the final Covid-19 relief legislation could pass Congress before March 15, when extra unemployment assistance and other pandemic aid expire. Japanese shares ended higher with better-than-expected earnings and reports that the government may lift its corona virus state of emergency early for some areas.

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