Bourses come off from high levels in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets came off from high levels but continued to trade with hefty gains in late afternoon session. Traders continued to take support as Fed cut interest rates by 50 basis points and signalled more cuts ahead. Investors took note of report that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the banking sector will have to play a crucial role in driving the agenda of making India a developed nation or Viksit Bharat by 2047. She also said banks will be required to give strong momentum to the infrastructure sector, ensure the availability of need-based funding to MSMEs, bring unbanked population under the ambit of formal banking channels, and help increase insurance penetration.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green with investors continuing to cheer the Federal Reserve's half-a-percentage point interest rate cut on Wednesday, and digesting the policy moves of the Bank of Japan, the Chinese central bank. European markets were trading lower after a rally in the previous session spurred by the U.S. Federal Reserve's outsized interest rate cut, while shares of Mercedes were set for their worst day in 15 months after the automaker cut its core profit outlook. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 83923.91, up by 739.11 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 83187.64 and 84515.10. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.64%, while Small cap index was up by 0.93%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.94%, Capital Goods up by 1.51%, Auto up by 1.44%, Industrials up by 1.42% and Realty was up by 1.24%, while IT was down by 0.04% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 4.22%, JSW Steel up by 3.43%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.62%, Adani Ports up by 1.99% and Nestle up by 1.94%. On the flip side, TCS down by 0.97%, SBI down by 0.84%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.38%, NTPC down by 0.35% and Axis Bank down by 0.33% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the banking sector will have to play a crucial role in driving the agenda of making India a developed nation or Viksit Bharat by 2047. She also said banks will be required to give strong momentum to the infrastructure sector, ensure the availability of need-based funding to MSMEs, bring unbanked population under the ambit of formal banking channels, and help increase insurance penetration. 

The minister noted that technology is changing the banking landscape as it provides a secure and easy-to-navigate digital banking experience to all customers. However, she said ‘banks cannot have a digital system which somewhere gets hacked, and the entire system and the trust which is laid on it getting compromised. So you need to have a robust and resilient system for which every now and then you need to make sure that the firewalls are adequate, any emergency drill which you need to do, what if situation so you know to handle if there is an emergency in terms of digital insecure incidents.’

She also highlighted the rising popularity of the UPI in driving digital payments, saying 45 per cent of all real-time digital payments globally take place in India. The UPI is operational in seven countries.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25647.95, up by 232.15 points or 0.91% after trading in a range of 25426.60 and 25806.95. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.99%, Coal India up by 3.95%, JSW Steel up by 3.16%, Eicher Motors up by 2.57% and Larsen & Toubro up by 2.39%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.14%, SBI down by 0.92%, Grasim Industries down by 0.88%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.53% and Axis Bank down by 0.46% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 568.58 points or 1.51% to 37,723.91, Hang Seng advanced 245.41 points or 1.34% to 18,258.57, Taiwan Weighted added 116.73 points or 0.53% to 22,159.42, KOSPI increased 12.57 points or 0.48% to 2,593.37 and Shanghai Composite was up by 0.79 points or 0.03% to 2,736.81. On the flip side, Straits Times fell 12.28 points or 0.34% to 3,620.90 and Jakarta Composite was down by 138.8 points or 1.76% to 7,766.59.

European markets were trading lower; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 34.07 points or 0.41% to 8,294.65, France’s CAC fell 62.07 points or 0.82% to 7,553.34 and Germany’s DAX was down by 166.1 points or 0.87% to 18,836.28.