Sensex Edges Higher, Nifty Hovers Around 11,100

The domestic stock markets opened in the green on Wednesday after the government said it was positive on economic growth and the state of bad loans in public sector banks. The S&P BSE Sensex started at 36,936.64 and the Nifty50 at 11,145.55, as compared to Tuesday’s closing levels of 36,305.02 and 11,067.45 respectively. At 9:39 am, the 30-share Sensex traded at 36,708.16, up 56.10 points or 0.15 per cent and the 50-share Nifty was at 11,095, with a gain of 27.55 points or 0.25 per cent.

Advancing between 0.98-1.52 per cent, Yes Bank, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, and Mahindra and Mahindra were the top five Sensex gainers.

Thirty-six out of 50 Nifty stocks advanced in trade. Barring the Nifty IT and FMCG indices, all sectoral benchmarks of the National Stock Exchange traded in the green. Gains were led by pharma, auto and banking stocks.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday that with several major NPA cases at the penultimate stage of the resolution process, there was optimism among banks as well as the Financial Services Department about the recovery of bad loans. Financial Services Secretary Rajeev Kumar said that banks expected to recover Rs. 1.8 lakh crore worth of bad loans in the current financial year as opposed to around Rs. 75,000 crore in the last fiscal.

Mr Jaitley was also upbeat that the country will post a growth of 8 per cent.