Sensex, Nifty continue to trade in positive terrain

Indian stock markets continued to trade in positive terrain in the noon session due to buying in consumer durables, healthcare and realty stocks. Buying in frontline stocks such as Bharti Airtel, Ultratech Cement and HDFC were aiding sentiment, while selling in ITC, Indusind Bank and Infosys kept the gains in the markets in check. Sentiments remained positive with Commerce and industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the free trade agreement between India and the UAE has opened huge opportunities and businesses of both countries should look at taking the bilateral trade to $250 billion by 2030. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is likely to visit India this week and the key focus is expected to be discussions on a payment system for New Delhi's procurement of oil and military hardware from Moscow. It would be the highest-level visit from Russia to India after Moscow launched its military offensive against Ukraine on February 24. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly higher amid prospect of more cease-fire talks between Russia and Ukraine.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57734.48, up by 140.99 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 57644.85 and 57934.15. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.40%, while Small cap index was up by 0.40%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.82%, Healthcare up by 0.77%, Realty up by 0.74%, Telecom up by 0.69% and Basic Materials was up by 0.68%, while Energy down by 0.92%, Oil & Gas down by 0.91%, PSU down by 0.66%, Metal down by 0.65% and FMCG was down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.14%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.50%, HDFC up by 2.22%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.71% and Sun Pharma was up by 0.90%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.05%, Indusind Bank down by 0.98%, Infosys down by 0.58%, SBI down by 0.56% and Tata Steel was down by 0.49% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Former finance minister P Chidambaram has raised doubts over high Gross domestic product (GDP) growth projections for 2022-23 in Union Budget, and said these number are not credible. He said ‘I am cautioning the government that you (will) not get 8 per cent, 9 per cent or 9.5 per cent GDP growth. The world is going through a churning. IMF has lowered growth rate (projections) for all countries by 0.5 per cent to 2 per cent, I think we must settle for lower growth rate. We must achieve that lower growth rate.’

Chidambaram urged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that she must reassess these growth projections and tell the House about the more realistic nominal and real GDP growth numbers. He also suggested that lower growth rate can be achieved only if the government encourages private savings, household savings and fine ways to channelise that into private investment. It is a difficult year ahead and requires sound tax policies, financial management and economic management.

He further said ‘next year, Finance Minister expects that direct tax as proportion of GDP will increase to 5.5 per cent and indirect tax as a proportion of GDP will come down to 5.2, which means that we are reversing the bad trend in last five or six years’. He noted that Indirect and direct taxes together touched 11.2 per cent ( of GDP) in 2017-18 and this year it will be 10.8 per cent and next year it will come down to 10.7 per cent. He opined that if total taxes as proportion of GDP fall by as much as 0.4 per cent or 0.5 per cent then there is something seriously wrong with tax policies and tax administration.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17266.00, up by 44.00 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 17241.60 and 17322.25. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.20%, Divi's Lab up by 2.65%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.43%, Eicher Motors up by 2.25% and HDFC was up by 2.17%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 3.01%, Coal India down by 2.67%, ITC down by 0.99%, Indusind Bank down by 0.98% and Hindalco was down by 0.71% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted strengthened 28.65 points or 0.16% to 17,548.66, KOSPI rose 10.99 points or 0.4% to 2,740.55, Nikkei 225 surged 308.53 points or 1.1% to 28,252.42 and Hang Seng was up by 166.18 points or 0.77% to 21,851.15.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 3.59 points or 0.11% to 3,210.91, Jakarta Composite lost 7.39 points or 0.1% to 7,042.21 and Straits Times was down by 10.37 points or 0.3% to 3,421.62.