Bourses turn green in noon deals

Local equity benchmarks erased all losses to turn positive in noon session, both Sensex and Nifty were trading above 54600 and 16300 marks, respectively. Buying in frontline stocks such as Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel and Tata Steel were aiding sentiment, while selling in Nestle, HCL Tech and Infosys kept the gains in the markets in check. Traders took some solace as foreign institutional investors were stood as net buyers in the capital market on Monday as they purchased shares worth Rs 156.08 crore, as per stock exchange data. However, upside remain capped with private report stating that American brokerage has cut its FY23 real GDP expansion estimate for India by 0.40 per cent to 7.2 per cent on slower global growth. It said the GDP growth will slow down to 6.4 per cent in FY24, adding that this is lower by 0.30 per cent compared to the earlier estimate. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as traders continued to worry about the economic outlook ahead of next week's US Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 54650.72, up by 129.57 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 54232.82 and 54697.63. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.31%, while Small cap index was up by 0.57%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.01%, Bankex up by 0.73%, PSU up by 0.55%, Consumer Durables up by 0.50% and Telecom was up by 0.44%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.40%, IT down by 0.22%, TECK down by 0.17%, Power down by 0.13% and Utilities was down by 0.13% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 2.27%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.57%, Tata Steel up by 1.21%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.14% and Bajaj Finserv was up by 1.05%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 1.70%, HCL Tech down by 1.12%, Infosys down by 0.97%, ITC down by 0.54% and Asian Paints was down by 0.45% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad has said that scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) recovered bad loans worth over Rs 8.6 lakh crore over the last eight financial years (provisional data), as a result of comprehensive steps taken by the government and RBI to check the cases of non-performing assets (NPAs) and bring them down. He also said that the occurrence of NPAs is normal, although an undesirable, corollary to the business of banking.

The minister noted that several factors -- including prevailing macroeconomic conditions, sectoral issues, global business environment, delayed recognition of stress by banks, aggressive lending during upturns, improper risk pricing, and poor credit underwriting -- are attributed to NPA build-up. He said the government and RBI regularly issue guidelines and have taken several initiatives aimed at resolution of long-standing stressed assets on the books of banks as well as timely identification and recognition of stress immediately upon default and take corrective action for mitigation of the same.

He further said these measures complement the statutory provisions already available to lenders for recovery and resolution, including, the Recovery of Debts and Bankruptcy Act, 1993, Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002, and Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16304.65, up by 26.15 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 16187.05 and 16328.65. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 2.24%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.68%, Coal India up by 1.53%, Tata Steel up by 1.24% and Ultratech Cement was up by 1.13%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 1.74%, SBI Life Insurance down by 1.46%, HCL Tech down by 1.16%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.09% and Infosys was down by 0.97% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Straits Times trembled 5.63 points or 0.18% to 3,116.13, KOSPI fell 4.28 points or 0.18% to 2,370.97, Taiwan Weighted dropped 25.56 points or 0.17% to 14,694.08 and Hang Seng was down by 151.98 points or 0.73% to 20,694.20.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite gained 2.27 points or 0.07% to 3,280.37, Nikkei 225 surged 173.21 points or 0.65% to 26,961.68 and Jakarta Composite was up by 49.81 points or 0.75% to 6,709.06.