Bourses trade volatile trade in late afternoon session

In volatile trading session, Indian equity benchmarks trimmed some of their gains in late afternoon session but managed to remain in green territory. Buying in Telecom and Basic Materials stocks helped markets to trade near neutral lines. Gains got restricted after the price of cooking gas piped to household kitchens in the national capital and adjoining cities was hiked by Rs 2.63 per unit on Friday, the second increase in rates in less than two weeks. However, traders took some support after Reserve Bank raised the key interest rate by 50 basis points, the third straight increase since May in an effort to cool stubbornly high inflation and defend the rupee. The repurchase rate was raised by 50 basis points to lift the interest rate to the pre-pandemic level. On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher as investors awaited an update on the U.S. jobs market later in the day for clues on the pace of monetary policy tightening going ahead. European markets were trading lower as crude prices continued to weigh on energy stocks, with all eyes on U.S. jobs data expected later in the day.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58368.06, up by 69.26 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 58326.70 and 58649.19. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.19%, while Small cap index was up by 0.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.60%, Basic Materials up by 0.95%, TECK up by 0.91%, IT up by 0.79% and Bankex was up by 0.48%, while Auto down by 0.91%, Consumer Durables down by 0.50%, Capital Goods down by 0.44%, Oil & Gas down by 0.30% and Consumer Discretionary down by 0.29% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement up by 2.80%, ICICI Bank up by 1.80%, NTPC up by 1.32%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.25% and Infosys up by 1.24%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.93%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.43%, Reliance Industries down by 1.34%, Indusind Bank down by 1.14% and HDFC down by 0.60% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to deal with a sudden increase in imports, India and Mauritius have agreed to include provisions related to the automatic trigger safeguard mechanism in their trade pact. Both sides agreed to the inclusion of the General Economic Cooperation (GEC) chapter and Automatic Trigger Safeguard Mechanism (ATSM) in CECPA (Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement).

Under this, if the imports of these products increase at an alarming rate, then after reaching a certain threshold, a country can impose safeguard duties on those items to protect domestic players. The GEC chapter will enable the enhancement of export competitiveness and enlarge the existing scope for collaboration in the fields of investments, financial services, textiles, SMEs, information and communication technology, film production, space technology, and the blue economy.

As per the commerce ministry, both sides have also held deliberations to establish equivalence in certification, skills and licensing requirements of various professional bodies, and explore collaboration and cooperation arrangements between the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and its counterpart in Mauritius on developing skill sets.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17380.45, down by 1.55 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 17380.20 and 17474.40. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 2.89%, Shree Cement up by 1.87%, UPL up by 1.85%, ICICI Bank up by 1.64% and NTPC up by 1.52%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.26%, Britannia down by 2.09%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.96%, Eicher Motors down by 1.82% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.53% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 333.84 points or 2.27% to 15,036.04, Nikkei 225 surged 243.67 points or 0.87% to 28,175.87, Shanghai Composite gained 37.99 points or 1.19% to 3,227.03, Hang Seng increased 27.90 points or 0.14% to 20,201.94, Jakarta Composite soared 27.31 points or 0.39% to 7,084.66, KOSPI rose 17.69 points or 0.72% to 2,490.80 and Straits Times was up by 10.86 points or 0.33% to 3,280.72.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 13.04 points or 0.18% to 7,435.02, France’s CAC decreased 16.94 points or 0.26% to 6,496.45 and Germany’s DAX was down by 1.07 points or 0.01% to 13,661.61.