Markets trade in high spirit with over 1% gains in early deals; Metal stocks shine

Indian equity benchmarks magnified their gains with gap-up opening on Friday tracking strength in US markets overnight. Markets are trading in high spirit in early deals with gains of over a percent each. Metal and Auto indices are leading the gainers with over 2% rise. Sentiments got a boost as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net bought shares worth Rs 1,637.69 crore on July 28, as per provisional data available on the NSE. Traders took encouragement as the commerce ministry said the manufacturing sector attracted foreign direct investments worth $21.34 billion in 2021-22, an increase of 76 per cent year-on-year. Traders took note of Power Minister R K Singh’s statement that power deficit came down from 2 per cent in April to 0.4 per cent in May and 0.6 per cent in June despite significant rise in demand of electricity. Meanwhile, the 5G spectrum auction will now enter the fourth day as telcos are engaged in an unexpected competition to get airwaves used for both 2G and 4G services. After 16 rounds of bidding for 5G spectrum auction, the government has fetched bids worth Rs 1,49,623 crore on the third day.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed following the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight, as trader sentiment remains positive on hopes the U.S. Fed will slow down its pace of interest rate hikes at its upcoming meetings. However, the unexpected decline in US GDP for the second consecutive quarter signals the U.S. economy is in a technical recession. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said industrial production in Japan was up a seasonally adjusted 8.9 percent on month in June.

Back home, sugar stocks were in focus with report that the Centre is expected to allow an additional 1.2 million tonnes (MT) of sugar exports in the 2021-22 season, which will end in September, over and above the 10 MT already fixed, due to higher-than-anticipated domestic production. In stock specific development, SBI Life Insurance rallied on strong Q1 earnings. The company reported a 17.78 per cent year-on-year (YoY) rise in net profit at Rs 262.85 crore for the June quarter compared with Rs 223.16 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Westlife Development gained after it reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 23.57 crore in Q1FY23 as compared to a net loss of Rs 33.39 crore in the April-June quarter a year ago.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57470.75, up by 612.96 points or 1.08% after trading in a range of 57255.98 and 57488.56. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.24%, while Small cap index was up by 1.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.66%, Auto up by 2.37%, Power up by 1.83%, Consumer discretionary up by 1.79%, Realty up by 1.78%, while Healthcare down by 0.17% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.38%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.78%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.69%, Asian Paints up by 2.63% and Maruti Suzuki up by 2.40%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 3.65% and Sun Pharma down by 0.72% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, the commerce ministry has said that the manufacturing sector attracted foreign direct investments (FDI) worth $21.34 billion in 2021-22, an increase of 76 per cent year-on-year, as compared to $12.09 billion in 2020-21. It said the government has implemented several reforms under the FDI policy regime across sectors such as insurance, defence, telecom, financial services, pharmaceuticals, retail trading, and e-commerce.

Singapore (27.01 per cent) and the US (17.94 per cent) have emerged as the top two investors during 2021-22 in India. These were followed by Mauritius (15.98 per cent), the Netherlands (7.86 per cent) and Switzerland (7.31 per cent).

Despite the ongoing pandemic and global developments, India received the highest annual FDI inflows of $84,835 million in FY 21-22 overtaking last year’s FDI by $2.87 billion. Earlier, FDI inflows increased from $74,391 million in FY 19-20 to $81,973 million in FY 20-21. Top five sates receiving highest FDI in 2021-22 are Karnataka (37.55 per cent), Maharashtra (26.26 per cent), Delhi (13.93 per cent), Tamil Nadu (5.10 per cent) and Haryana (4.76 per cent).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17126.65, up by 197.05 points or 1.16% after trading in a range of 17059.80 and 17127.05. There were 47 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI Life Insurance up by 6.61%, Tata Steel up by 4.48%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.82%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.80% and Hindalco up by 2.70%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 3.64%, Cipla down by 1.04% and Sun Pharma down by 0.70% were the few losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Nikkei 225 slipped 62.15 points or 0.22% to 27,753.33, Straits Times fell 16.11 points or 0.50% to 3,204.54, Hang Seng declined 473.78 points or 2.30% to 20,148.90 and Shanghai Composite was down by 23.72 points or 0.72% to 3,258.86. On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted rose 63.69 points or 0.43% to 14,955.59, KOSPI added 11.47 points or 0.47% to 2,446.74 and Jakarta Composite was up by 35.51 points or 0.51% to 6,992.33.