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Indian equity benchmarks ended flat amid the volatile session on Wednesday, a day ahead of the monthly F&O expiry session. Some buying interest is seen in selected Oil & Gas, Power and Energy stocks while some pressure is seen in Consumer Durables, Telecom and Realty stocks. Market opened positively and stayed in green for most part of the day, with positive comments by the World Health Organisation (WHO) chief scientist on the Covid-19 situation in India. He said coronavirus in India may be entering some kind of stage of endemicity where there is low or moderate level of transmission going on. Some optimism also came in as Minister of State of Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel said India is likely to record exports worth $46 billion to the ASEAN region. She noted that as one of the largest destinations for Indian exports, the Association of South East Asian Nations will be an important region for India in meeting the global export target of $400 billion in financial year 2021-22.

Domestic sentiments remained positive in late afternoon deals, taking support with Chief financial advisor (CEA) Krishnamurthy V Subramanian’s statement that India is well-poised to climate the ripple impact of taper tantrum if the US Federal Reserve begins to cut back its $120-billion-a-month quantitative easing later this year. Some support also came with private report stated that India has overtaken the United States (US) to become the second-most sought-after manufacturing destination globally, driven mainly by cost competitiveness. However, markets erased gains and closed on a flattish note, as traders turned wary with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) stating that the coronavirus pandemic may have pushed as many as 80 million people in developing Asia into extreme poverty last year, threatening to derail progress on global goals to tackle poverty and hunger by 2030. 

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday, while European markets were trading mostly in green, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street, as another rally in crude oil prices, positive U.S. vaccination news and easing worries about an imminent tapering of stimulus by the US Federal Reserve raised hopes the global economy will recover faster than expected. Back home, on the sectoral front, Oil & gas sector stocks were in focus as India's crude oil production continued its declining trend, falling by over 3 per cent in July as state-owned ONGC produced less than the target. Agriculture industry related stocks were in action as the government relaxed norms for import of 12 lakh tonne of genetically modified crushed and de-oiled soya cake, used as livestock feed.

Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 14.77 points or 0.03% to 55,944.21, while the CNX Nifty was up by 10.05 points or 0.06% to 16,634.65.   

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 56,198.13 and 55,899.96, respectively and there were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.    

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.58%, while Small cap index was up by 0.68%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.28%, Power up by 1.27%, Energy up by 1.12%, IT up by 0.81% and Industrials up by 0.70%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.09%, Telecom down by 0.82%, Realty down by 0.74%, Bankex down by 0.40% and Finance down by 0.23% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 1.31%, Infosys up by 0.96%, Reliance Industries up by 0.89%, Nestle up by 0.38% and ITC up by 0.34%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 3.51%, Titan Company down by 2.08%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.36%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.19% and Tata Steel down by 1.01% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Chief financial advisor (CEA) Krishnamurthy V Subramanian has said that India is well-poised to climate the ripple impact of taper tantrum if the US Federal Reserve begins to cut back its $120-billion-a-month quantitative easing later this year. He stated in contrast to within the aftermath of the 2008-09 international monetary disaster, the Indian economic system is on a lot stronger footing to soak up any exterior shock, due to the adoption of a even handed mixture of each demand and supply-side measures following the Covid-19 outbreak.

These steps will assist maintain inflation under 6% within the coming months, rein in present account deficit (CAD) and forestall any spike in fiscal deficit (from the budgetted stage of 6.8% of GDP in FY22). He exuded confidence that the federal government’s elevated market borrowing plan for a second straight year will go on easily.

Besides, talking about the proposal to list certain categories of government securities on global bond indices in FY22, Subramanian said the plan is still on and the revenue department is working on a couple of issues on this front. Overseas players were apprehensive about the stability of India’s tax regime, thanks to damaging steps like the retrospective tax amendment in 2012. But, he added the fear has been put to rest now after the current government recently junked this amendment.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 16,712.45 and 16,617.50 and there were 21 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.    

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports &SEZ up by 3.70%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 2.59%, Hindalco up by 2.42%, ONGC up by 2.39% and Coal India up by 1.91%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.93%, Titan Company down by 2.23%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.31%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.31% and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 1.12% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 14.02 points or 0.2% to 7,139.80 and France’s CAC increased 11.46 points or 0.17% to 6,675.77, while Germany’s DAX decreased 28.13 points or 0.18% to 15,877.72.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday tracking record closing for US stocks overnight, while safe-haven US dollar hovered near its one-week lows versus major peers ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole Economic symposium later in the week. Chinese shares ended higher after China’s central bank PBoC increased its short-term fund injection through open market operations (OMOs) to meet higher cash demand towards the month-end. However, Japanese shares ended marginally lower, driven by concerns about the worsening wave of new Covid-19 infections. The Japanese government decided to expand a state of emergency to eight more prefectures, taking the total to 21 in all, as the country sees sudden spike in critical cases.

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