Markets continue to move forward with strength in late afternoon session

Local equity markets continued to move forward with strength amid a day of weekly F&O expiry. Besides, investors took cues from a rally in global markets after the US Federal Reserve hiked its interest rates. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point and signaled hikes at all six remaining meetings this year. HDFC was the biggest mover among the Sensex 30 stocks. Titan Company, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Asian Paints were the other noticeable gainers. Buying was broad based with both BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index trading above a percent. Some support came after income tax department said income tax refunds worth over Rs 1.92 lakh crore have been issued to more than 2.24 crore taxpayers so far this fiscal. This includes 1.83 crore refunds of Assessment Year 2021-22 (2020-21 fiscal), amounting to Rs 37,961.19 crore.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green buoyed by signs of progress in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and by expectations of more support for China's wobbly economy. European markets were trading higher with investors widely expecting the Bank of England to announce a third straight interest rate rise to combat decades-high UK inflation.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57968.77, up by 1152.12 points or 2.03% after trading in a range of 57518.06 and 58095.84. There were 28 stocks advancing against 1 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remain unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.12%, while Small cap index up by 1.23%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 3.00%, Realty up by 2.72%, Metal up by 2.42%, Bankex up by 2.37% and Basic Materials was up by 2.15%, while there were no losers on sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 5.54%, Titan Company up by 4.50%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.39%, Asian Paints up by 3.34% and Tata Steel up by 3.30%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 0.48% was only losers.

Meanwhile, credit rating agency, Moody's Investors Service in its ‘Global Macro Outlook 2022-23 (March 2022 Update)’ has lowered India's growth estimate by 0.4 percentage point for the current year to 9.1 per cent, from 9.5 per cent earlier, as the agency is expecting high fuel and potentially fertilizer costs would weigh on government finances down the road, potentially limiting planned capital spending.

Moody's Investors Service further said that India is particularly vulnerable to high oil prices, given that it is a large importer of crude oil. Because India is a surplus producer of grain, agricultural exports will benefit in the short-term from high prevailing prices.

In the report titled ‘Economic Growth will suffer as fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine builds’, the rating agency said that India's growth is likely to be 5.4 per cent in 2023. Besides, it said that the forecast revisions also factor in the somewhat stronger underlying momentum than the agency had not accounted for previously.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17307.90, up by 332.55 points or 1.96% after trading in a range of 17175.75 and 17344.60. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC up by 5.35%, JSW Steel up by 4.91%, Titan Company up by 4.47%, SBI Life up by 3.73% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.48%. On the flip side, Indian Oil down by 0.86%, Cipla down by 0.55%, Power Grid down by 0.48%, ONGC down by 0.15% and NTPC down by 0.04% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Hang Seng increased 1413.73 points or 7.04% to 21,501.23, Nikkei 225 surged 890.88 points or 3.46% to 26,652.89, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 507.39 points or 3% to 17,448.22, Shanghai Composite gained 44.33 points or 1.4% to 3,215.04, KOSPI rose 35.28 points or 1.33% to 2,694.51 and Straits Times was up by 30.63 points or 0.93% to 3,321.53. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 28.02 points or 0.4% to 6,964.38.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 20.67 points or 0.28% to 7,312.35, France’s CAC increased 33.45 points or 0.51% to 6,622.09 and Germany’s DAX was up by 25.24 points or 0.17% to 14,465.98.