Domestic indices trade flat with positive bias in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made cautious start on Thursday tracking mixed global cues coupled with expiry of weekly F&O. domestic indices are trading flat with positive bias in early deals as buying in Telecom and Realty counters aided the sentiments, whereas selling in IT and TECK stocks kept upside in check. Some support came in with former Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement that Indian economy, which has grown fairly rapidly in the last 17 years, will grow at 7-8 per cent in the next couple of decades. Adding more optimism, Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) remained net buyers for the third day straight on Dalal Street on Wednesday. FIIs pumped in Rs 1,780 crore into domestic stocks. Meanwhile, minister of consumer affairs, food, and public distribution Piyush Goyal has said that the Centre has no plans to subsidise the export of pulses.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, as worries about economic slowdown, inflation and rate hike concerns continued to weigh on the market. Traders were also cautious ahead of the monetary policy announcements by the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank later in the day. Back home, metal stocks were in limelight as Union Minister Faggan Singh Kulaste said the exports of finished steel from India jumped over 25 per cent to 13.49 million tonne (MT) in 2021-22. During the preceding 2020-21 fiscal, the exports stood at 10.78 MT. In stock specific movements, Tata Communications traded higher on 14.7% YoY rise in net profit in Q1, while Adani Enterprises hits 52-week high as stock is set to enter Nifty50 index.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 55444.39, up by 46.86 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 55270.75 and 55455.81. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.67%, while Small cap index was up by 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.37%, Realty up by 1.04%, Capital Goods up by 0.98%, Industrials up by 0.78%, Metal up by 0.72%, while IT down by 0.23%, TECK down by 0.02%, Consumer Durables down by 0.02% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 5.26%, Axis Bank up by 0.82%, ITC up by 0.77%, Bajaj Finserv up by 0.69% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.63%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 2.61%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.94%, Wipro down by 0.90%, Reliance Industries down by 0.40% and HDFC Bank down by 0.27% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, former Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya has said that Indian economy, which grown fairly rapidly in the last 17 years, will grow at 7-8 per cent in the next couple of decades. He noted that the country's economy grew 7.4 per cent between 2014-15 to 2019-20.

On GST, Panagariya said ‘we should get to two GST rates (structure).... Also, we need to prune the GST exemption list’. A nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST), which subsumed 17 local levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT and 13 cesses, was rolled out in July 2017. Under GST, a four-rate structure that exempts or imposes a low rate of tax of 5 per cent on essential items and top rate of 28 per cent on cars is levied. The other slabs of tax are 12 and 18 per cent.

On certain experts and politicians comparing the current situation in Sri Lanka, which is facing an economic crisis, with that of India, he said ‘it is nonsense to compare the current economic situation in Sri Lanka with India. India is a very stable economy’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16548.25, up by 27.40 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 16483.90 and 16549.05. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 5.23%, UPL up by 1.94%, Hindalco up by 1.90%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.45% and Apollo Hospital up by 1.09%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 2.51%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.03%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.89%, Reliance Industries down by 0.48% and Wipro down by 0.35% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Straits Times fell 21.76 point or 0.69% to 3,148.53, Hang Seng slipped 266.75 point or 1.28% to 20,623.47, Jakarta Composite lost 56.60 point or 0.82% to 6,818.14 and Shanghai Composite was down by 13.92 point or 0.42% to 3,290.80. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 added 38.49 point or 0.14% to 27,718.75, Taiwan Weighted rose 112.57 point or 0.76% to 14,845.79 and KOSPI was up by 12.16 point or 0.51% to 2,399.01.