Indian markets trade firm in early deals; Reliance Industries leads gainers

Indian equity benchmarks extended their previous session’s gains with gap-up opening on Thursday amid mixed global cues. Markets are trading firm in early deals with gains of around 0.80% each led by buying in Reliance Industries. Some support came in as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva said a high growth rate for India, as projected in the latest World Economic Outlook, is not only healthy for the country but also positive news for the world. Adding more optimism, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP), aimed at improving multi-modal connectivity and last-mile connectivity across the country, is important for achieving the prime minister's dream of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25. Market participants largely overlooked the government data showing that retail inflation for farm and rural labourers increased to 6.09 per cent and 6.33 per cent in March 2022, respectively, mainly due to higher prices of certain food items and clothing.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed following the mixed cues overnight from Wall Street, and as U.S. futures climbed after the Federal Reserve released its Beige Book, which said U.S. economic activity has expanded at a moderate pace since mid-February, boding well for the global economy. Back home, aviation industry stocks were buzzing with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) report showing that domestic airlines carried 24 million passengers during January-March 2022 against 23 million during the same period last year, growing at 6.06 per cent YoY. Lower base effect as well as easing Covid travel restrictions accelerated India's domestic air passenger traffic growth. In scrip specific development, Angel One zoomed after its consolidated net profit surged 100.85 per cent to Rs 204.69 crore in Q4FY22.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57504.79, up by 467.29 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 57311.86 and 57524.43. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.73%, while Small cap index was up by 1.29%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 1.28%, Industrials up by 1.03%, Capital Goods up by 0.97%, Consumer discretionary up by 0.93%, Realty up by 0.93%, while Metal down by 0.54% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 1.97%, ITC up by 1.75%, Indusind Bank up by 1.70%, Sun Pharma up by 1.51% and Asian Paints up by 1.47%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 1.64%, Tata Steel down by 1.48%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.50% and Axis Bank down by 0.22% were the few losers.

Meanwhile, dismissing the contention that currency devaluation encourages exports, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said weakening of the rupee would not be in the nation's interest in the long run. He also said it is important for India to expand exports significantly and encourage investments to increase foreign exchange inflows into the country.

He said ‘there is a large pool of thought which believes that you need to devalue your currency so that you become competitive in export market...’ He added ‘I can assure you from my own experience and my engagements with large sections of industry across the board confirms that rupee devaluation or weakening our currency is actually detrimental to our nation's interest, to our growth story and to our ability to be competitive in the long run.’

The minister also said that devaluation increases cost of imports, brings inflation into the country, pushes up interest cost and makes products uncompetitive as India is import-dependent for raw materials. He added that healthy exports, investments and remittances help in growing foreign exchange reserves, which stand at over $600 billion. He noted that export helps in earning precious foreign exchange and keeps the rupee stable.

He further said exports during April 1-14 have increased to $18.5 billion. He added India's pharma exports hold huge potential and can increase to $200 billion in the coming years. On free trade pacts, he said these agreements are ‘two-way traffic’ and help both sides.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17264.00, up by 127.45 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 17215.50 and 17270.35. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 3.47%, Reliance Industries up by 2.00%, Indusind Bank up by 1.74%, ITC up by 1.68% and Asian Paints up by 1.54%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 1.67%, Tata Steel down by 1.58%, Hindalco down by 1.50%, JSW Steel down by 0.77% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.77% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Nikkei 225 surged 275.19 points or 1.01% to 27,493.04, Straits Times advanced 14.58 points or 0.44% to 3,349.90, KOSPI rose 9.57 points or 0.35% to 2,728.26 and Jakarta Composite added 35.68 points or 0.49% to 7,263.04. On the other hand, Hang Seng plunged 349.02 points or 1.67% to 20,595.65, Taiwan Weighted fell 1.14 points or 0.01% to 17,147.74 and Shanghai Composite was down by 50.31 points or 1.60% to 3,100.74.