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Local equity markets took a U-turn to trade in green in noon session as US secretary of state agreed to a meeting with Russia's foreign minister, raising hopes of a solution to the standoff over Ukraine. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accepted an invitation to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov late next week provided Russia does not invade Ukraine. Additional support came in as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged multilateral financial institutions to increase funding especially to low and middle income countries to prepare them to deal with pandemic situations in the future. However, upside remain capped as Crisil Ratings in report stated that since the introduction of new asset quality norms last November that brought in shadow banks and housing financiers on par with banks, housing finance companies' gross bad loans have gone up by 70 basis points (bps) even as their portfolio quality has improved.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as investors fear a wider war as one of the deepest crises in post-Cold War relations plays out, with Russia wanting security guarantees, including Ukraine’s never joining NATO. Back home, following the positive trajectory were the stocks belonging to Capital Goods, Metal and Power counters, however, stocks from Healthcare, Oil & Gas and IT index, remained the weak links of the trade.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58001.23, up by 109.22 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 57488.39 and 58021.64. There were 19 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.19%, while Small cap index was down by 0.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.98%, Metal up by 0.59%, Power up by 0.51%, Utilities up by 0.50% and Bankex was up by 0.39%, while Healthcare down by 0.52%, Oil & Gas down by 0.38%, IT down by 0.34%, TECK down by 0.29% and Consumer Durables was down by 0.25% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 1.46%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.27%, Tata Steel up by 0.76%, SBI up by 0.69% and Power Grid was up by 0.66%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 1.42%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.86%, Nestle down by 0.66%, Infosys down by 0.61% and Titan Company was down by 0.51% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged multilateral financial institutions to increase funding especially to low and middle income countries to prepare them to deal with pandemic situations in the future. She said that low income and middle income countries do not have enough resources and need global support to face challenges.

The minister stated that increased funding would be needed from multilateral development banks. Resilient and Sustainability Trust (RST) being created by the IMF must keep pandemic preparedness in mind. Therefore, she said the principle being agreed upon investment, looking at addressing fairness, and also financing modalities being well established so that they have inclusivity, transparency and equity in mind. The proposed $50 billion-worth RST's central objective is to provide affordable long-term financing to support countries as they tackle structural challenges.

Stressing that the committee appointed by the G20 has done commendable work in giving a roadmap for fund mobilisation, she said the gap can be filled with other means, including through Official Development Assistance (ODA). She said the World Health Organisation (WHO) needed to expand its capacity and mobilise global resources, and structural bottlenecks would have to be addressed to bring down the impact a pandemic might have.

 The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17322.70, up by 18.10 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 17219.20 and 17339.55. There were 28 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 2.58%, SBI Life Insurance up by 2.33%, HDFC up by 1.25%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.15% and Grasim Industries was up by 0.96%. On the flip side, Divi's Lab down by 2.19%, Cipla down by 2.06%, ONGC down by 1.83%, Shree Cement down by 1.59% and Ultratech Cement was down by 1.42% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Straits Times trembled 3.93 points or 0.11% to 3,437.64, Taiwan Weighted dropped 36.22 points or 0.2% to 18,232.35, Hang Seng decreased 114.81 points or 0.46% to 24,677.96 and Nikkei 225 was down by 110.80 points or 0.41% to 27,122.07.

On the other hand, KOSPI rose 0.90 points or 0.03% to 2,744.99, Shanghai Composite gained 11.07 points or 0.32% to 3,479.11 and Jakarta Composite was up by 54.57 points or 0.8% to 6,889.69.

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