Sensex, Nifty remain higher in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks remained higher in late morning session, despite negative cues from other Asian markets. Domestic sentiments remained positive, as the growth of eight core infrastructure industries grew 5.8 per cent in February 2022 as against a contraction of 3.3 percent in the year ago month, propped up by the low base effect and strong performance in steel, cement, coal, natural gas, refinery products and electricity segments. Adding more optimism, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's digital economy is likely to witness exponential growth to $800 billion by 2030. Besides, the Reserve Bank said that the non-food credit growth has accelerated to 8 per cent in February as against 6.6 per cent in the year-ago period.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after the manufacturing sector in Taiwan continued to expand in March, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from S&P Global showed on Friday with a manufacturing PMI score of 54.1. That's down from 54.3 in February although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58798.39, up by 229.88 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 58450.04 and 58879.25. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.87%, while Small cap index was up by 1.32%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 1.85%, Utilities up by 1.84%, Power up by 1.73%, Telecom up by 1.56% and Realty up by 1.29%, while TECK down by 0.21%, IT down by 0.17% and Consumer Durables down by 0.05% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 4.30%, Indusind Bank up by 2.79%, Power Grid up by 2.54%, HDFC Bank up by 1.65% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.45%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 1.11%, Infosys down by 0.80%, Sun Pharma down by 0.58%, ICICI Bank down by 0.54% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.40% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the growth of eight core infrastructure industries grew 5.8 per cent in February 2022 as against a contraction of 3.3 percent in the year ago month, propped up by the low base effect and strong performance in steel, cement, coal, natural gas, refinery products and electricity segments. The Eight Core Industries - coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilizers, steel, cement and electricity - comprise 40.27 percent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).    

Coal production having 10.33 per cent weight increased by 6.6 per cent in February, 2022 over February, 2021 and its cumulative index increased by 9.8 per cent during April to February, 2021-22 over corresponding period of the previous year. Natural Gas production having 6.88 per cent weight increased by 12.5 per cent in February, 2022 over February, 2021 and its cumulative index increased by 20.5 per cent during April to February, 2021-22 over the corresponding period of previous year. Petroleum Refinery production having 28.04 per cent weight increased by 8.8 per cent in February, 2022 over February, 2021 and its cumulative index increased by 9.2 per cent during April to February, 2021-22over the corresponding period of previous year.

Steel production having 17.92 per cent weight increased by 5.7 per cent in February, 2022 over February, 2021 and its cumulative index increased by 18.4 per cent during April to February, 2021-22 over the corresponding period of previous year. Cement production having 5.37 per cent weight increased by 5.0 per cent in February, 2022 over February, 2021 and its cumulative index increased by 22.4 per cent during April to February, 2021-22 over the corresponding period of previous year. Electricity generation having 19.85 per cent weight increased by 4.0 per cent in February, 2022 over February, 2021 and its cumulative index increased by 8.1 per cent during April to February, 2021-22 over the corresponding period of previous year.

On the flip side, Crude Oil production having 8.98 per cent weight declined by 2.2 per cent in February, 2022 over February, 2021 and its cumulative index declined by 2.6 per cent during April to February, 2021-22 over the corresponding period of previous year. Fertilizers production having 2.63 per cent weight declined by 1.4 per cent in February, 2022 over February, 2021 and its cumulative index decreased by 0.4 per cent during April to February, 2021-22 over the corresponding period of previous year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17529.50, up by 64.75 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 17422.70 and 17556.75. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 4.30%, Indusind Bank up by 2.93%, BPCL up by 2.67%, Power Grid up by 2.58% and HDFC Life Insurance up by 2.12%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.04%, SBI Life Insurance down by 1.64%, Divi's Lab down by 1.33%, Titan Company down by 1.09% and Cipla down by 0.79% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 159.37 points or 0.72% to 21,837.48, Taiwan Weighted dropped 126.95 points or 0.72% to 17,566.52, Nikkei 225 slipped 101.56 points or 0.37% to 27,719.87, KOSPI fell 19.73 points or 0.72% to 2,737.92 and Jakarta Composite lost 10.55 points or 0.15% to 7,060.89. On the flip side, Straits Times advanced 1.72 points or 0.05% to 3,410.24 and Shanghai Composite gained 20.20 points or 0.62% to 3,272.40.