Bourses continue firm trade in late afternoon session

The Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in late afternoon session. The gains were led by the FMCG and Auto stocks. Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv were the prime gainers among heavy-weights. Traders took support after finance ministry has said that gross direct tax collections grew 30% to Rs 8.36 lakh crore till September 17 of current fiscal year on higher advance tax mop-up buoyed by the economic revival post pandemic. Besides, centre’s advance direct tax collections grew by about 22% on year to Rs 1.81 trillion in the second quarter of the current financial year.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red and European markets were trading lower after another week of big defeats on Wall Street, as investors prepared for another interest rate climb by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Back home, with an aim to expedite the last-mile delivery, helping businesses save time and money, the government has unveiled the National Logistics Policy. The three main targets of the policy are reducing logistics cost in India to be comparable to global benchmarks by 2030.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59252.07, up by 411.28 points or 0.70% after trading in a range of 58487.76 and 59277.55. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in mixed; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.07%, while Small cap index was up by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.14%, Auto up by 1.09%, TECK up by 0.67%, Energy up by 0.53% and Oil & Gas was up by 0.51%, while Metal down by 0.78%, Telecom down by 0.49%, Capital Goods down by 0.41%, Utilities down by 0.41% and Power was down by 0.39% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.00%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.76%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.29%, Nestle up by 2.19% and Hindustan Unilever up by 2.08%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.56%, NTPC down by 1.19%, Power Grid down by 0.93%, ICICI Bank down by 0.87% and Sun Pharma down by 0.22% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its data on Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) for August 2022 has showed that India Inc's investment in their overseas ventures dropped by 59 per cent on an annual basis to USD 1.03 billion in August of current financial year.

It mentioned the total financial commitment by the domestic firms was worth USD 1,027.67 million in August, 2022-23. In the same month of 2021-22, it stood at USD 2,500.97 million (USD 2.5 billion). In the preceding month of July 2022, Indian businesses' overseas financial investment was USD 1,116.69 million (USD 1.12 billion).

Of the total investment during August this fiscal, the highest was in the form of equity infusion at USD 585.65 million. While USD 266.63 million was infused by way of issuance of guarantees, the rest USD 175.39 million was through loans. RBI said the data is provisional and subject to change based on online reporting by authorised dealer (AD) banks.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17658.15, up by 127.30 points or 0.73% after trading in a range of 17429.70 and 17667.20. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.07%, Bajaj Finance up by 3.04%, SBI Life up by 2.67%, Adani Ports up by 2.56% and Bajaj Finserv up by 2.35%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.51%, Cipla down by 1.50%, Britannia down by 1.18%, NTPC down by 1.04% and ICICI Bank down by 0.92% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Hang Seng decreased 195.72 points or 1.04% to 18,565.97, Taiwan Weighted dropped 136.08 points or 0.93% to 14,425.68, KOSPI fell 27.12 points or 1.14% to 2,355.66, Straits Times trembled 13.01 points or 0.4% to 3,255.28 and Shanghai Composite was down by 10.80 points or 0.35% to 3,115.60. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 26.62 points or 0.37% to 7,195.49.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 45.39 points or 0.62% to 7,236.68, France’s CAC decreased 50.95 points or 0.84% to 6,026.35 and Germany’s DAX was down by 38.78 points or 0.3% to 12,702.48.