Domestic equity market benchmark Sensex and Nifty were trading higher on Thursday ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) last monetary policy for the current financial year. This sixth bi-monthly policy statement for 2019-20 would be the last one for the current fiscal. “Indian markets are mirroring the global markets and trading on a higher note powered by rate-sensitive stocks. With the overreaction following the budget mostly done with, the focus will shift to how global events and Q3 results pan out. With Inflation being on the higher side there is no further room left for the central bank to tweak rates and is expected to continue its accommodative stance in the policy,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd said.
Nifty 50 index surges past 12,000-mark- Around 10.15 AM, S&P BSE Sensex was trading 100 points or 0.23 per cent higher at 41,239 points, while the broader Nifty 50 index was ruling at 12,122, up 33 points or 0.28 per cent.
20 out of 30 stocks in green- As many as 20 stocks out of 30 Sensex stocks were trading in the green today. HCL Tech was the top gainer on the Sensex pack with 2.54 per cent growth, followed by Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank, Power Grid and Bharti Airtel. Conversely, Kotak Mahindra Bank was languishing at the bottom with 0.70 per cent decline on the index. HDFC, Infosys, NTPC, HDFC Bank, Titan were among other losers on the pack.
Sectoral indices in green- Barring Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Realty index, all the sectoral indices were trading in green in today’s trade. The nifty Metal index was trading higher led by gains in National Aluminium Company, Jindal Steel and Power, and Ratnami Metals and Tubes.
Global markets- Asian stocks edged up on Thursday, cheered by record closes in Wall Street benchmarks after encouraging economic data, although investors kept a wary eye on the developments in the coronavirus outbreak, according to Reuters. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 1.14 per cent while Japan’s Nikkei rose 2.07 per cent. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained 1.13 per cent to a record close of 3,334.69 while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.43 per cemt to 9,508.68, also a record high.
RBI policy outcome- In the final bi-monthly monetary policy decision for FY20, the RBI is expected to keep the key rates steady, owing to a rise in inflation and stress on the economy, analysts said. The policy comes at a time when the economy is seeing a growth slowdown for the past few months. In Q2FY20, the GDP grew at a dismal pace of 4.5 per cent and the retail inflation surged to 7.35 per cent in December 2019 much above the comfort range of the RBI at 4 per cent.
Q3 earnings- Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Hero MotoCorp, Eicher Motors, Lupin, UCO Bank and United Bank of India are among companies that are scheduled to release their December quarter earnings today.
FIIs buy Rs 249 crore worth stocks- On Wednesday, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were buyers of domestic stocks to the tune of Rs 249 crore while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 263 crore, as per the NSE data.