Sensex, Nifty hold gains in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks were holding gains in late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty trading in green, on the back of positive cues from other Asian markets. Domestic sentiments remained positive, amid reports that there are demands to extend production linked incentive (PLI) scheme to more sectors such as certain electronic components, pharma and medical devices, and discussions are underway in the government on these proposals. Discussions are also going on to bring PLI scheme for toys, furniture, bicycles and containers. Traders paid no heed towards report stating that the Reserve Bank of India may raise interest rates by another 50 basis points this month after data showed inflation rose further above the central bank's tolerance limit in August.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, following the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight, as traders remain cautious while they await the release of the U.S. inflation data later in the day for more clues about the Fed's interest rate move at the upcoming policy meeting later this month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60517.71, up by 402.58 points or 0.67% after trading in a range of 60381.02 and 60551.07. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.46%, while Small cap index was up by 0.42%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.87%, Consumer Durables up by 0.81%, Basic Materials up by 0.80%, FMCG up by 0.78% and Consumer discretionary up by 0.49%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.20% and Utilities down by 0.05% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 4.77%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.01%, Titan Co up by 1.49%, Nestle up by 1.41% and Power Grid up by 1.25%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 0.39%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.33%, TCS down by 0.27%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.12% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with higher food prices, retail inflation rose to 7 per cent in August 2022, after declining for three months. This may prompt the Reserve Bank of India to go for another rate hike later this month to tame price rise. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation has remained above the central bank’s comfort level of 6 per cent for eight months in a row. CPI inflation was 6.71 per cent in July and 5.3 per cent in August 2021. Besides, the inflation in food basket was 7.62 per cent in August, up from 6.69 per cent in July and 3.11 per cent in August 2021.

The National Statistical Office (NSO) under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its data has showed that the Rural CPI (General) in August 2022 stood at 7.15 per cent as against 6.80 per cent in July. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 6.72 per cent in August as against 6.49 per cent in July. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 175.3, 173.1 and 174.3 respectively, in August 2022.

The data showed that the rate of price rise was in excess of 10 per cent in the case of vegetables, spices, footwear, and ‘fuel and light’. Vegetables inflation increased to 13.23 per cent from 10.90 per cent. Spices also recorded a double-digit inflation at 14.90 per cent in August, up from 12.89 per cent last month. fuel and light inflation stood at 10.78 per cent in August, while Cereals inflation rose to 9.57 per cent in August from 6.90 per cent last month. However, there was contraction in inflation in egg and almost flat in protein rich ‘meat and fish’ in August. Inflation in egg contracted to 4.57 per cent, while that in meat and fish stood at 0.98 per cent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18053.95, up by 117.60 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 18015.45 and 18065.50. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finserv up by 4.82%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 2.69%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.96%, Titan Co up by 1.65% and Nestle up by 1.34%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 0.73%, Shree Cement down by 0.48%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.43%, HCL Tech. down by 0.38% and TCS down by 0.35% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; Hang Seng increased 47.81 points or 0.25% to 19,410.06, Nikkei 225 surged 72.52 points or 0.25% to 28,614.63, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 66.06 points or 0.45% to 14,873.49, Shanghai Composite gained 3.48 points or 0.11% to 3,265.53, KOSPI rose 61.28 points or 2.57% to 2,445.56, Straits Times advanced 16.19 points or 0.49% to 3,290.91 and Jakarta Composite soared 66.10 points or 0.91% to 7,320.56.