Benchmarks continue to trade higher in morning deals

Indian equity benchmark continued to trade higher in morning deals, amid recovery in global markets and buying in index majors Mahindra & Mahindra and Indusind Bank. Sentiments remained positive with the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) President TV Narendran stating that the country’s economy is likely to grow 7.5-8 per cent this fiscal year (FY23) with exports playing a key role in the country’s success story. Traders overlooked India Ratings and Research’s (Ind-Ra) report warned that the ongoing headwinds like war-triggered inflation, rate tightening by RBI and weak rupee will lead to a Rs 60,000 crore increase in 'risky debt' in FY23. Defining 'risky debt' as borrowings by companies having a net leverage or debt to operating profit ratio of more than five times, it said the ongoing troubles will take the stock of such loans to Rs 6.9 lakh crore by end of FY23, as against the Rs 6.3 lakh crore it would have been but for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green after a late revival on Wall street, though global growth fears stoked by China's stringent COVID-19 curbs and an expected streak of aggressive Federal Reserve tightening sapped risk appetite. Back home, real estate industry’s stocks remained in watch as India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) said it expects housing prices to appreciate by 8 per cent this fiscal, mainly due to rise in demand from end users.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57208.06, up by 628.17 points or 1.11% after trading in a range of 57066.24 and 57333.49. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.25%, while Small cap index was up by 1.01%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 2.05%, Realty up by 1.84%, Power up by 1.77%, Utilities up by 1.66% and FMCG up by 1.64%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.36%, Indusind Bank up by 3.03%, Sun Pharma up by 2.31%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.11% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.94%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 0.41% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.15% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has said it expects housing prices to appreciate by 8 per cent in current financial year (FY23), mainly due to rise in demand from end users. It mentioned that the current housing sales uptick and increased demand is end user driven and not speculative. Hence, the hike in prices will be sustainable and is likely to be incremental. Prices were up 6 per cent pan-India in FY22.

Furthermore, it added the surge in the housing sales in India has not been accompanied by a sharp rise in prices so far. It noted after a prolonged period of decline, prices stabilised in the past few years. It expects the price appreciation of residential property in FY23 to be around 8 per cent at pan-India level, led by Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad.

Besides, it expects housing sales to rise by around 12 per cent YoY (year-on-year) in FY23. In FY22, for the top eight real estate clusters, housing sales increased 42 per cent YoY on a pandemic-impacted lower base. In FY23, it expects well-known and trusted developers to witness better sales, and affordable housing segments to continue to claim around 50 per cent share of the total sales.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17156.30, up by 202.35 points or 1.19% after trading in a range of 17110.30 and 17181.85. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.26%, Indusind Bank up by 3.21%, Bajaj Auto up by 3.21%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.08% and Tata Consumer Product up by 2.46%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 0.30%, ONGC down by 0.29%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.17% and Hindalco down by 0.14% were the few losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 375.62 points or 1.89% to 20,244.96, Nikkei 225 surged 201.64 points or 0.76% to 26,792.42, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 56.35 points or 0.34% to 16,677.25, Shanghai Composite gained 27.42 points or 0.94% to 2,955.93 and KOSPI rose 13.52 points or 0.51% to 2,670.65.

On the flip side, Straits Times tumbled 6.37 points or 0.19% to 3,333.22 and Jakarta Composite lost 18.42 points or 0.26% to 7,197.56.