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Sensex, Nifty hold strong gains in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks maintained their gaining rally during late morning deals, with both Sensex and Nifty holding their strong gains. Domestic sentiments were positive, despite negative cues from other Asian markets. Traders were getting relief, amid reports that banks have written off bad loans to the tune of Rs 1.15 lakh crore during the first three-quarters of the current fiscal. Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha that as per RBI guidelines and policy approved by bank Boards, non-performing loans, including those in respect of which full provisioning has been made on completion of four years, are removed from the balance-sheet of the bank concerned by way of write-off.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after Japan's gross domestic product climbed an annualized 11.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020. That missed expectations for an increase of 12.8 percent following the 22.9 percent surge in the three months prior. On a quarterly basis, gross domestic product gained 2.8 percent - again missing forecasts for 3.0 percent and down from 5.3 percent in the previous three months.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 50887.35, up by 446.28 points or 0.88% after trading in a range of 50702.36 and 50994.60. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.28%, while Small cap index was up by 0.44%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.10%, Consumer Durables up by 1.19%, Basic Materials up by 0.81%, Consumer discretionary up by 0.70% and Metal up by 0.52%, while Oil & Gas down by 1.74%, Utilities down by 0.94%, Energy down by 0.67%, PSU down by 0.53% and Power down by 0.43% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 2.99%, HDFC Bank up by 2.82%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.42%, HDFC up by 2.13% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.13%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.16%, ONGC down by 1.10%, Nestle down by 0.78%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.60% and Infosys down by 0.54% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid travel curbs and capacity restrictions due to the pandemic, ICRA in its latest report has said that India's domestic air traffic fell 37 per cent year-on-year to 78 lakh (7.8 million) passengers in February 2021, as compared to 1.23 crore people travelled on local routes in February 2020. It said even the sequential growth slowed down for the second consecutive month in February with a nearly flat growth over January 2021. According to DGCA data, domestic passenger traffic in January this year was recorded at 77.34 lakh.

The number of flights departing has also gradually increased from 416 on day one (May 25, 2020, when domestic operations were resumed) to 2,885 on day 267 (February 14, 2021). Kinjal Shah, Vice President, ICRA said ‘for February 2021, the average daily departures were around 2,296, significantly lower than the average daily departures of 3,137 in February 2020, though better than around 2,190 in January 2021’.

She said the average number of passengers per flight during February 2021 was 121, against an average of 136 passengers per flight in February 2020, therefore, it is expected that the domestic aviation industry operated at a passenger load factor (PLF) of around 78 per cent in February 2021, against 87.7 per cent a year ago, that too on a low capacity. She added that the PLF for February 2021 was higher than around 73 per cent in January 2021, due to the decline in capacity deployment by around 5 per cent. Overall, from May 25, 2020, till February 28, 2021, domestic passenger traffic has been pegged at around 45.6 million.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15081.15, up by 124.95 points or 0.84% after trading in a range of 15035.45 and 15119.30. There were 27 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI Life Insurance up by 3.79%, Grasim Industries up by 3.17%, ICICI Bank up by 3.03%, HDFC Bank up by 2.74% and HDFC Life Insurance up by 2.34%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 4.80%, GAIL India down by 2.53%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 2.22%, ONGC down by 1.14% and Power Grid down by 1.09% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted dropped 27.52 points or 0.17% to 15,792.59, KOSPI fell 16.28 points or 0.54% to 2,979.83, Jakarta Composite lost 8.30 points or 0.13% to 6,240.17 and Shanghai Composite declined 5.75 points or 0.17% to 3,415.66. On the flip side, Straits Times advanced 39.97 points or 1.3% to 3,111.13, Nikkei 225 surged 257.92 points or 0.9% to 29,001.17 and Hang Seng increased 437.43 points or 1.53% to 28,978.26.

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