Sensex Zooms 800 Points, Nifty Tops 17,400; RBI Keeps Repo Rate Unchanged at 4%

Wed, 8 Dec 10:30 am

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Asian share markets are higher today after Wall Street shares rallied for a second straight session on receding worries over the latest Covid-19 variant.

The Nikkei advanced 1.5% while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.9%. The Hang Seng, on the other hand, fell 0.2%.

In US stock markets, Wall Street indices finished Tuesday's session with strong gains as investors shook off some anxiety about the latest coronavirus variant and investors boosted Nasdaq by piling into technology stocks.

The Dow Jones surged 1.4% while the Nasdaq rallied 3%.

Back home, Indian share markets have opened on a strong note. Benchmark indices started firm today, ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy outcome.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 838 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 237 points.

Bajaj Finance and HCL Tech are among the top gainers today.

HDFC Life, on the other hand, is among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index are trading higher by 0.9%, and 1.3%, respectively.

All sectoral indices are trading in green with stocks in the IT sector and energy sector witnessing most of the buying interest.

Shares of Tanla Platforms and La Opala RG hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 75.38 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up by 0.1% at Rs 48,116 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading down by 0.2% at Rs 61,728 per kg.

Crude oil prices edged lower, reversing gains from earlier the week, as investors tried to assess the full impact of the Omicron coronavirus variant on global fuel demand and the effectiveness of existing vaccines.

Speaking of stock markets, Brijesh Bhatia talks about how you should think about trading OMC stocks, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily.

In the video, Brijesh shows how OMC stocks move against crude oil prices and how to trade them. Tune in to find out more.

In news from the banking sector, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das announced that the central bank has decided to keep key rates unchanged - repo rate remains at 4% and the stance remains accommodative.

Amid the global scare due to new coronavirus variant Omicron, the RBI was expected to maintain status quo in its upcoming monetary policy and wait for a more opportune time to calibrate benchmark interest rate to promote growth.

A Reuters poll of 50 economists showed that the RBI would keep rates unchanged. Even all 28 economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected the MPC to leave the repurchase rate unchanged at 4%.

In news from the power sector, as many as 20 companies including Reliance Industries, Ola Electric and Tata Chemicals reportedly expressed interest in the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for manufacturing Advanced Chemistry Cell batteries, considered the latest technology in storage of electric power.

Here's what Arun Goel, secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries, told the Economic Times.

• The response to PLI ACC has been better than expected. We have notified the scheme for setting up a manufacturing capacity of 50 GWh, but the interest is more than double of that.

Goel declined to specify the names of the companies that participated in the pre-bid meet held last month, although Amara Raja, Exide Leclanche Energy and Lucas TVS also reportedly participated in the pre-bid conference.

The ministry released the Request for Proposal (RFP) document in October inviting bidders for setting up a total manufacturing capacity of 50 GWh with an outlay of Rs 181 bn. As many as 100 participants from 20 companies attended the pre-bid conference organized for prospective bidders.

We will keep you updated on the latest developments from this space. Stay tuned.

Moving on to stock specific news...

Nestle India is among the top buzzing stocks today.

Nestle India on Tuesday informed the exchanges that the government of India has approved its proposal towards PLI scheme w.r.t processed fruits and vegetables.

The company had submitted its proposal towards the scheme for the food processing sector under the eligible categories i.e., ready to eat / ready to cook and processed fruits & vegetables back in June.

FMCG majors Nestle, Parle, Dabur and Britannia said the PLI scheme in food processing will go a long way in creating large scale capacity, creating great Indian brands in international markets besides helping farmers here in the country.

With the government approving their applications for the PLI scheme in food processing, the companies said it will also play a key role in promoting job creation.

Dabur India CEO Mohit Malhotra said the PLI scheme has been crafted to promote domestic manufacturing and would lead to creation of large-scale manufacturing capacity besides promoting job creation in a critical sector like food processing.

The food processing ministry on Monday had said it has approved 60 applications of investment proposals by packaged food companies, including Amul, ITC, HUL, Britannia Industries, Parle Agro, Tata Consumer Products and Nestle seeking benefits under the PLI scheme.

In March this year, the government had approved a PLI scheme for the food processing sector, entailing an outlay of Rs 109 bn.

FMCG stocks are trading on a positive note today with Emami and Bata India leading gains.

Speaking of the FMCG sector, have a look at the chart below which shows the performance of BSE Sensex and BSE FMCG index since 2009:

While the Sensex has offered 393% returns since 2009, the BSE FMCG index has gone up a staggering 532% returns over the same period.

Richa Agarwal, Senior Research Analyst at Equitymaster, and Editor of the smallcap service, Hidden Treasure, believes this outperformance could continue for many years.

As per Richa, with a rising population and standards of living, Indian's consumption demand for FMCG products will skyrocket over the coming years.

To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.