Domestic indices trade in fine-fettle in early deals on firm global cues

Indian equity benchmarks extended their previous session’s gains with gap-up opening on Wednesday tracking rally in the global markets. Domestic indices are trading in fine-fettle in early deals on account of sustained buying in all the sector indices led by Realty, Metal and Energy stocks. Sentiments got a boost as the World Bank retained its FY22 growth forecast for India at 8.3 per cent but upgraded it to 8.7 per cent for FY23, from 7.5 per cent estimated earlier, citing improving growth prospects, especially a reviving private capex cycle. Adding more optimism, former chief economic adviser Arvind Virmani said the Indian economy is likely to register a growth of 9.5 per cent in this financial year. Some support also came in as preliminary data from the commerce ministry showed that the country's exports grew 33.16 per cent to $7.63 billion during January 1-7 period on account of healthy performance by various sectors, including engineering, petroleum and gems and jewellery. Investors are eyeing the industrial growth and retail inflation data to be out later in the day.

Global cues remained supportive with all the Asian markets trading higher following the broadly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, on a sharp overnight rally in commodity prices and as traders reacted positively to US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's testimony before a Senate Banking Committee hearing on his renomination for another term. Back home, IT stocks were in focus ahead of their quarterly earnings to be announced after market hours. Telecom stocks too were in limelight with the three leading telcos seeking 90-95 per cent reduction in base price of 5G spectrum auction. In scrip specific development, Delta Corp gained as its net profit jumped more than four-fold to Rs 65.90 crore for the quarter ended December 2021 as against Rs 15.49 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60955.45, up by 338.56 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 60850.93 and 61044.89. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.54%, while Small cap index was up by 0.86%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.22%, Metal up by 1.50%, Energy up by 1.18%, Basic Materials up by 1.00%, PSU up by 0.89%, while there was no losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 1.27%, HDFC up by 1.26%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.24%, Reliance Industries up by 1.23% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.07%. On the flip side, TCS down by 0.79%, Titan Company down by 0.54%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.41%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.17% and Wipro down by 0.09% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the World Bank in its latest Global Economic Prospects report has retained India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast at 8.3 percent for current fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22) as what was stated in its last projection released in October 2021. Besides, it upgraded the country’s growth forecast for FY23 to 8.7 percent from 7.5 percent estimated earlier. It cited improving growth prospects, especially a reviving private capex cycle for up-gradation.

According to the report, the growth rate of the Indian economy in the current and next fiscal will be stronger as compared to its immediate neighbours. Bangladesh is expected to grow at 6.4 and 6.9 percent in FY22 and FY23, respectively; Nepal at 3.9 percent this fiscal and at 4.7 percent in the next financial year; and Pakistan's economy is predicted to accelerate by 3.4 percent in FY22 and 4 percent in FY23.

The global economic growth will ‘decelerate markedly’ this year as COVID-19 outbreaks and supply chain snarls persist. At the same time, the support programmes unveiled by several governments are about to end. The World Bank forecast global growth to slow down to 4.1 percent this year from an estimated 5.5 percent in 2021, but warned ‘Omicron-related economic disruptions could substantially reduce growth’ to as low as 3.4 percent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18171.60, up by 115.85 points or 0.64% after trading in a range of 18128.80 and 18184.60. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 2.27%, Reliance Industries up by 1.50%, Indusind Bank up by 1.49%, ONGC up by 1.34% and HDFC up by 1.33%. On the flip side, TCS down by 0.74%, Cipla down by 0.68%, Titan Company down by 0.55%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.43% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.16% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets are trading in green; Nikkei 225 surged 544.90 points or 1.93% to 28,767.38, Straits Times rose 3.58 points or 0.11% to 3,249.95, Hang Seng jumped 487.25 points or 2.05% to 24,226.31, Taiwan Weighted added 5.85 points or 0.03% to 18,294.06, KOSPI soared 40.59 points or 1.39% to 2,967.97, Jakarta Composite gained 23.83 points or 0.36% to 6,671.80 and Shanghai Composite was up by 12.49 points or 0.35% to 3,579.93.