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| Photo Credit: Reuters
Equity benchmark indices began the trade on an optimistic note on August 22, extending their previous day’s rally amid a firm trend in global markets.
The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 92.83 points to 65,308.92 in early trade. The NSE Nifty gained 35.5 points to 19,429.10.
From the Sensex pack, NTPC, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, JSW Steel and Larsen & Toubro were the major gainers. Jio Financial Services, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Titan were the laggards.
Shares of Jio Financial Services, the demerged financial services unit of Reliance Industries, listed on the bourses on Monday.
With the company’s listing, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty added Jio Financial Services to their pack. This has been done to ensure price stability and limit volatility in shares of RIL in view of the demerger as part of the revised methodology of the exchanges to treat demergers.
The newly listed entity would be removed from the indices after the end of the day on the third day of its listing. In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong were quoting in the green while Shanghai traded lower. The U.S. markets ended mostly in the positive territory on Monday.
“There are two dominant factors influencing equity markets now. One, the resilient U.S. economy is supporting global growth and global equity markets; this is a positive. Two, the sharp spike in U.S. bond yields (the 10-year yield at 4.34% is the highest since 2007) is impacting capital flows to emerging markets like India; this is a negative for Indian markets.
“Sustained rise in FII inflows will happen only if the U.S. bond yields decline. Clarity on this will emerge only after trends in U.S. inflation and Fed’s monetary stance indicate softening,” said V. K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.14% to $84.34 a barrel.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹1,901.10 crore on Monday, according to exchange data. The BSE benchmark had climbed 267.43 points or 0.41% to settle at 65,216.09 on Monday. The Nifty gained 83.45 points or 0.43% to end at 19,393.60.
