Bourses widen gains in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets widened their gains in late afternoon session with Sensex and Nifty garnering gains of above two percent. Metal, Basic Materials and Energy stocks were witnessing healthy buying interest. The overall market breadth was highly positive as 2558 shares were advancing and 725 were declining, while 137 shares were unchanged on the BSE. Sector wise, metal stocks remain in focused amid hopes of China demand revival and value buying. In scrip specific, Life Insurance Corporation of India listed with 8.62% discount on the BSE. On the global front, all Asian markets were trading higher fueled largely by strength in materials and energy stocks amid higher commodity prices. European markets were trading higher on hopes that demand in China could be sustained as authorities looked to relax COVID-19 restrictions that had started to squeeze the world's second-largest economy.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 54138.43, up by 1164.59 points or 2.20% after trading in a range of 53176.02 and 54162.84. There were 30 stocks advancing against no stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 2.02%, while Small cap index was up by 2.21%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 7.35%, Basic Materials up by 3.89%, Energy up by 3.59%, Oil & Gas up by 2.95%, Telecom up by 2.84%, while there were no losers on sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 6.86%, ICICI Bank up by 4.20%, ITC up by 4.19%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.86% and Maruti Suzuki up by 3.72%.

Meanwhile, India’s inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) surged further to 15.08% for the month of April as against 14.55% in March. The annual rate of inflation was 15.08% in April 2022 as compared to 10.74% in April 2021, due to rise in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, crude petroleum & natural gas, food articles, non-food articles, food products and chemicals & chemical products etc. as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

Component wise, primary articles index, having weight of 22.62%, increased by 2.70% to 174.9 (provisional) in April 2022 from 170.3 (provisional) for the month of March 2022. Prices of Food Articles, Non-food Articles, Crude Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minerals increased in April 2022 as compared to March 2022.

Fuel & Power index, having weight of 13.15%, increased by 2.79% to 151 (provisional) in April 2022 from 146.9 (provisional) for the month of March 2022. Prices of Mineral Oils increased in April 2022 as compared to March 2022. However, Prices of Electricity declined in April 2022 as compared to March 2022.

Besides, Manufactured Products constituting the major portion of the index with weight of 64.23%, increased by 1.69% to 144 (provisional) in April 2022 from 141.6 (provisional) for the month of March 2022. Meanwhile, for the month of February 2022 the final Wholesale Price Index and inflation rate for 'All Commodities' (Base: 2011-12=100) stood at 145.3 and 13.43% respectively.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16217.30, up by 375.00 points or 2.37% after trading in a range of 15900.80 and 16219.05. There were 47 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 9.99%, Coal India up by 7.28%, Tata Steel up by 7.02%, JSW Steel up by 6.22% and ONGC up by 5.86%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 0.76%, Tata Consumer down by 0.56% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.09% were the only losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher, Hang Seng increased 652.31 points or 3.27% to 20,602.52, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 155.05 points or 0.98% to 16,056.09, Nikkei 225 surged 112.70 points or 0.42% to 26,659.75, Jakarta Composite soared 46.48 points or 0.7% to 6,644.47, KOSPI rose 23.86 points or 0.92% to 2,620.44, Shanghai Composite gained 19.95 points or 0.65% to 3,093.70 and Straits Times was up by 10.10 points or 0.32% to 3,201.26.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 52.59 points or 0.7% to 7,517.39, France’s CAC increased 93.05 points or 1.47% to 6,440.82 and Germany’s DAX was up by 210.29 points or 1.51% to 14,174.67.