Bourses wipe out all losses in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks wiped out all their losses and traded near neutral lines with positive bias in late afternoon session. Buying in Power, Utilities and Oil & Gas sectors’ stocks pushed the markets higher. Traders found some support as RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das exuded confidence that the price situation will gradually improve in the second half of the current fiscal, and the central bank would continue to take monetary measures to anchor inflation with a view to achieving strong and sustainable growth. Sector wise, leather industry remain in focused, as country's exports of leather and leather products would cross $6 billion in 2022-23 on account of growing demand for these products in global markets.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red and European markets were trading lower as upbeat U.S. jobs data rekindled worries over aggressive policy tightening and parts of China's financial hub faced more rounds of mass testing to fight rising COID-19 infections.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 54491.78, up by 9.94 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 54090.53 and 54507.57. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.46%, while Small cap index was up by 0.83%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 3.30%, Utilities up by 3.29%, Oil & Gas up by 2.15%, Metal up by 1.93% and Energy was up by 1.88%, while TECK down by 3.00%, IT down by 2.66%, Telecom down by 0.46% and Capital Goods was down by 0.38% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.81%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.83%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.21%, ICICI Bank up by 1.56% and Axis Bank up by 1.36%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 4.85%, TCS down by 4.36%, HCL Tech down by 3.67%, Infosys down by 2.72% and Tech Mahindra down by 2.01% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, credit ratings agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has projected that the revenue of India’s pharmaceutical market (IPM) rose 16.1% yoy during June 2022, on the back of strong revenue growth across acute and chronic therapy segments namely gastro-intestinal (GI), analgesics, central nervous system (CNS), derma and gynaec therapy products.

According to the report, strong volume growth were observed in key therapies of the IPM. During FY22, IPM had witnessed 15% yoy sales growth, higher than 8%-10% observed over FY18-FY22, aided by the base effect. The rating agency expects mid-to-high single digit growth for IPM during FY23, led by the price hikes (up to 10%) to be taken by players in line with Wholesale Price Inflation index during April-May 2022.

Ind-Ra further noted that IPM reported 2% yoy sales growth during Q1FY23, led by CNS, derma and gynaec segments. During June 2022, sales volumes grew 9.3% yoy (May 2022: down 6.6% yoy), price growth was 6.2% yoy (5% yoy) while the growth in products launches was negative 1.1% yoy (negative 1.7% yoy).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16234.85, up by 14.25 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 16115.50 and 16242.75. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.89%, ONGC up by 3.25%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.69%, Eicher Motors up by 2.68% and JSW Steel up by 2.21%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 4.91%, TCS down by 4.39%, HCL Tech down by 3.56%, Infosys down by 2.74% and BPCL down by 2.71% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Hang Seng decreased 601.58 points or 2.77% to 21,124.20, Taiwan Weighted dropped 124.00 points or 0.86% to 14,340.53, Shanghai Composite declined 42.50 points or 1.27% to 3,313.58, Jakarta Composite lost 18.08 points or 0.27% to 6,722.14 and KOSPI was down by 10.34 points or 0.44% to 2,340.27. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was up by 295.11 points or 1.11% to 26,812.30.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 61.53 points or 0.86% to 7,134.71, France’s CAC decreased 62.11 points or 1.03% to 5,971.02 and Germany’s DAX was down by 110.20 points or 0.85% to 12,905.03.