Domestic indices extend opening gains; trade at day’s high

Indian equity benchmarks made flat-to-positive start on Thursday amid mixed global cues. But, soon markets gained traction and are trading at day’s high with around a percent gains in early deals on account board based buying in all the sector indices. Sentiments got a boost as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government expects the Indian economy to grow by 7.5 per cent this year. Modi also said the value of the Indian digital economy will reach $1 trillion by 2025. Traders took note of a private report that sowing of kharif crops like soyabean, paddy, cotton has picked up in the country amid an advancing monsoon. Meanwhile, an Indian ministerial panel will meet next week to discuss a goods and services tax on cryptocurrency transactions.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed amid broadly negative cues overnight from the global markets after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank is not trying to engineer a recession to stop inflation but is fully committed to bringing prices under control, even at the risk of an economic slowdown.

Back home, telecom stocks were in focus as the government removed spectrum usage charge ahead of the 5G airwave auction in a move that will enable companies save costs in spectrum purchase. In stock specific development, Quess Corp traded higher as its board of directors have approved the merger of Allsec Technologies with Quess Corp. however, Glenmark Pharma came under pressure as the US FDA issued form 483 with 6 observations for its Baddi Unit, which was inspected between June 13-22, 2022.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52323.83, up by 501.30 points or 0.97% after trading in a range of 51809.18 and 52365.29. All the 30 stocks were advancing on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index surged 1.05%, while Small cap index was up by 1.13%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.81%, Telecom up by 1.78%, Capital Goods up by 1.48%, Bankex up by 1.47%, Industrials up by 1.44%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.49%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.33%, ICICI Bank up by 2.32%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.13% and Asian Paints up by 1.95%.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest report has showed that India witnessed a current account deficit (CAD) of 1.2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22) against a surplus of 0.9 per cent in FY2020-21 due to a wider trade deficit. Current account deficit occurs when the value of goods and services imported and other payments exceeds the value of export of goods and services and other receipts by a country in a particular period.

The central bank said the trade deficit widened to $189.5 billion in FY22 from $102.2 billion a year ago, which resulted in slippage in the number which is considered a key representation of a country's external strength.

The Balance of Payments data suggested that goods imports stood at $618.6 billion in FY22 as against $398.5 billion in the year-ago period, leading to the widening of the trade deficit. Besides, for the January-March 2022 quarter (Q4FY22), the CAD narrowed on a sequential basis to $13.4 billion or 1.5 per cent of GDP against $22.2 billion or 2.6 per cent of GDP in the December 2021 quarter.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15569.20, up by 155.90 points or 1.01% after trading in a range of 15411.55 and 15577.30. There were 47 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 3.80%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.45%, Eicher Motors up by 2.44%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.41% and ICICI Bank up by 2.29%. On the flip side, Apollo Hospital down by 1.33%, Britannia Industries down by 0.06% and Power Grid down by 0.05% were the few losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Nikkei 225 fell 76.15 points or 0.29% to 26,073.40, Taiwan Weighted slipped 220.71 points or 1.44% to 15,127.04, KOSPI lost 29.35 points or 1.25% to 2,313.46 and Jakarta Composite declined 46.75 points or 0.67% to 6,937.56. On the other hand, Straits Times rose 18.95 points or 0.61% to 3,112.26, Hang Seng jumped 221.87 points or 1.06% to 21,230.21 and Shanghai Composite was up by 18.79 points or 0.58% to 3,285.99.