Benchmarks continue to trade higher in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade higher in morning deals, led by gain in IT, TECK and Energy stocks. Sentiments remained up-beat with the commerce ministry in its latest data has showed that India's merchandise exports rose by 15.46 per cent to $37.29 billion in May 2022 as compared to $32.30 billion in the same month last year on account of healthy performance by sectors like petroleum products, electronic goods and chemicals. Some support also came with Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey’s statement that retail prices of wheat, rice, sugar and edible oils are showing a declining trend after the measures taken by the government, including curbs on exports of wheat and sugar. Traders paid no heed towards report stated that as the country's fiscal policy is moving in sync with the monetary policy amid the runaway inflation, the tightening measures along with rising subsidies imply that the consolidated fiscal deficit may remain elevated at 10.2 per cent of GDP in FY23, down 20 bps from FY22. On the global front, Asian markets are trading in green amid growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will slow the pace of rate hikes to avoid tipping the world's biggest economy into a recession.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 56336.56, up by 518.45 points or 0.93% after trading in a range of 56241.33 and 56432.65. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.14%, while Small cap index was up by 0.25%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.95%, TECK up by 1.59%, Energy up by 1.04%, Capital Goods up by 0.53% and Oil & Gas up by 0.49%, while Power down by 1.16%, Utilities down by 1.14%, Basic Materials down by 0.95%, FMCG down by 0.47% and Consumer Durables down by 0.43% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 3.27%, Infosys up by 2.83%, HCL Technologies up by 2.50%, Wipro up by 2.33% and Tech Mahindra up by 2.27%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 3.34%, NTPC down by 1.73%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.20%, Nestle down by 1.00% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.68% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Care Ratings in its latest report has said that bank credit to non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) grew in double digit in FY22 with outstanding bank credit to them rising by 10.4 per cent to Rs 10.5 lakh crore on the back of improvement in overall economic activities and banks' renewed focus on the NBFC sector following improvement in their balance sheets.

It stated in absolute terms, NBFCs expanded by Rs 99,000 crore in FY22, from FY21. The number does not include liquidity given by banks to them through securitization route (direct assignment and pass-through certificates) and also banks' investments in NBFCs' debt instruments. Meanwhile, mutual funds' debt exposure through commercial papers (CPs) and corporate bonds, to NBFCs rose 14.3 per cent to Rs 1.7 lakh crore in FY22 as NBFCs issued more CPs to fund IPOs and as they shifted from long-term to short-term investments on expectation of hike in interest rates.

In absolute terms, it expanded by Rs 21,000 crore. Outstanding investments in CPs of NBFCs grew 25 per cent to Rs 73,000 crore in FY22 as the year was the best in the IPO history and NBFCs issued CPs worth Rs 15,000 crore to fund IPOs. The percentage share of funds deployed by mutual funds in CPs of NBFCs in FY22 stood at 4.4 per cent of debt assets under management (AUMs), up from 3.6 per cent in FY21.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16749.85, up by 121.85 points or 0.73% after trading in a range of 16736.65 and 16793.85. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 3.29%, Infosys up by 2.82%, HCL Tech. up by 2.48%, Wipro up by 2.34% and Tech Mahindra up by 2.33%. On the flip side, Grasim Industries down by 4.52%, Shree Cement down by 3.94%, Ultratech Cement down by 3.46%, Britannia Industries down by 1.86% and NTPC down by 1.70% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading in green; Nikkei 225 surged 1.18 points or 27660.62% to 324.23, Jakarta Composite soared 0.88 points or 7176.68% to 62.78, KOSPI rose 0.40 points or 2679.57% to 10.51 and Straits Times advanced 0.01 points or 3236.7% to 0.24.