Sensex Trades Marginally Higher; Dow Futures Up By 223 Points
Share markets in India are presently trading marginally higher.
The BSE Sensex is trading up by 85 points, up 0.2% at 52,238 levels.
Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading up by 38 points.
ONGC and Hindalco are among the top gainers today. ICICI Bank and Nestle India are among the top losers today.
The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.4%.
The BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.5%.
On the sectoral front, stocks from the mining sector, are witnessing most of the buying interest.
On the other hand, stocks from the IT sector are witnessing most of the selling pressure.
US stock futures are trading higher today, indicating a positive opening for Wall Street.
Nasdaq Futures are trading up by 82 points (up 0.6%) while Dow Futures are trading up by 223 points (up 0.7%)
The rupee is trading at 72.71 against the US$.
Gold prices are trading up by 0.4% at Rs 47,418 per 10 grams.
Gold prices today edged higher after a 3-day fall but struggled to push significantly higher amid flat global rates. On MCX, gold futures rose 0.3% to Rs 47,389 per 10 grams. In the previous three sessions, gold had declined Rs 800 amid softer global rates.
In global markets, spot gold prices were flat today as US Treasury yields rose to their highest levels since March. Note that higher bond yields increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets like gold.
However, a weaker US dollar supported the precious metal. Spot gold edged up 0.1%. The dollar index, which represents the value of the greenback against a basket of six currencies, slipped 0.3%.
Moving on to stock-specific news...
Among the buzzing stocks, today is Astrazeneca Pharma.
AstraZeneca Pharma India shares rose in trade today after World Health Organisation (WHO) gave emergency use approval (EUA) to two versions of AstraZeneca-Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine, allowing these shots to be rolled out globally through COVAX.
The vaccines are being produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute of India. The apex health organization has assessed the quality, safety, and efficacy data, risk management plans, and programmatic suitability, such as cold chain requirements of these two AstraZeneca- Oxford vaccines. The process took under four weeks.
The vaccine was reviewed on February 8 by WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE), which makes recommendations for vaccines' use in populations (i.e. recommended age groups, intervals between shots, advice for specific groups such as pregnant and lactating women). The SAGE recommended the vaccine for all age groups 18 and above.
The AstraZeneca-Oxford product is a viral vectored vaccine called ChAdOx1-S [recombinant]. It is being produced at several manufacturing sites, as well as in the Republic of Korea and India.
ChAdOx1-S has been found to have 63.1% efficacy and is suitable for low and middle-income countries due to easy storage requirements.
We will keep you posted on more updates from this space. Stay tuned.
At the time of writing, AstraZeneca Pharma India's share price was trading up by 5.1% on the BSE.
Moving on to news from the banking sector...
Government Shortlists Four Banks for Potential Privatisation
The Government of India (GoI) has shortlisted four mid-sized state-run banks for privatization, under a new push to sell state assets and shore up government revenues.
Note that privatization of the banking sector, which is dominated by state-run behemoths with hundreds of thousands of employees, is politically risky because it could put jobs at risk.
The four banks on the shortlist are Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, and the Central Bank of India. Two of those banks will be selected for sale in FY22. The government is considering mid-sized to small banks for its first round of privatization to test the waters. In the coming years, it could also look at some of the country's bigger banks.
The government, however, will continue to hold a majority stake in India's largest lender, State Bank of India, which is seen as a 'strategic bank' for implementing initiatives such as expanding rural credit.
India's deepest economic contraction on record caused by the pandemic is driving the push for bolder reforms. The GOI wants to overhaul a banking sector reeling under a heavy load of non-performing assets, which are likely to rise further once banks are allowed to categorize loans that soured during the pandemic as bad.
How this pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more updates from this space.
Speaking of the banking sector, check out the monthly returns of major sectors for the month of March and October 2020 in the chart below.
In the chart above, you can see that banks were among the major losers with a cut of 34% in the month of March.
Cut to October they are the biggest gainers for the month with 11% returns!
If you're interested in knowing what could be the reason behind such a change in sentiment, you can read about it in one of the editions of Profit Hunter: Banks are booming in a COVID World.
Disclosure: Equitymaster Agora Research Private Limited (Research Analyst) bearing Registration No. INH000000537 (hereinafter referred as 'Equitymaster') is an independent equity research ...
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