Post Session: Quick Review

Shrugging off weak global cues, Indian equity markets finished first day of trading week in green territory with Nifty and Sensex settling above the psychological 17,550 and 59,100 levels respectively. Bourses made a cautious start, as data from Reserve Bank showed India Inc's investment in their overseas ventures dropped by 59 per cent on an annual basis to $1.03 billion in August this year. Soon, markets gained traction and entered into green terrain to trade above neutral line, as the Monthly Economic Report of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance said India retained its status as an attractive destination among a set of developed and developing economies, as the 5th largest recipient of FDI in the April-June quarter. According to the report released, during Q1 of 2022, India was the 5th largest recipient of FDI among the defined set of developed and developing economies, as a buoyant growth outlook coupled with steady improvement in ease of doing business and supportive government policies retained India as an attractive business destination.

Markets traded in tight band with decent gains throughout the day as traders continued to take support with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that Indian economy is expected to grow by 7.5 per cent this year and it will be the highest among the world's largest economies. He said India is making progress to become a manufacturing hub while highlighting various aspects of the country's economy. Some support also came after finance ministry stated 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, European markets were trading lower as focus shifts to the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting, which will begin Tuesday. Asian markets ended mostly in red following the broadly negative cues from global markets on Friday, amid concerns about the outlook for the global economy amid monetary policy tightening by central banks around the world. 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 ended at 59141.23, up by 300.44 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 58487.76 and 59277.55. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index (Provisional).

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index was declined 0.16%, while Small cap index was down by 0.17% (Provisional).

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 0.98%, Auto up by 0.78%, TECK up by 0.43%, Oil & Gas up by 0.35% and Bankex up by 0.34%, while Metal down by 1.25%, Telecom down by 1.13%, Realty down by 0.99%, Capital Goods down by 0.71%, Utilities down by 0.58% were the top losing indices on BSE (Provisional).

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.43%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.92%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.08%, SBI up by 1.94% and Nestle up by 1.83%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.36%, NTPC down by 1.04%, ICICI Bank down by 0.77%, Asian Paints down by 0.59% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.55% were the top losers (Provisional).

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 ended at 17622.25, up by 91.40 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 17429.70 and 17667.20. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index (Provisional).

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.08%, Bajaj Finance up by 3.05%, SBI Life Insuran up by 2.44%, Adani Ports up by 2.28% and Hindustan Unilever up by 2.02%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.46%, Tata Motors down by 1.63%, Britannia down by 1.30%, ICICI Bank down by 1.09% and Power Grid down by 1.06% were the top losers (Provisional).

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 45.39 points or 0.62% to 7,236.68, France’s CAC decreased 93.46 points or 1.54% to 5,983.84 and Germany’s DAX was down by 112.60 points or 0.88% to 12,628.66.

Asian markets ended mostly lower on Monday tracking weakness in Wall Street as investors braced for more interest-rate tightening by the US Federal Reserve, while a profit warning from global delivery bellwether FedEx also heightened fears of a recession. The Federal Reserve will make its interest-rate decision Wednesday, while the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan will announce their monetary policy decisions on Thursday. Chinese shares declined, even as the People's Bank of China injected liquidity and cut its 14-day reverse repo rates to revive credit demand and prop up the sputtering economy. Meanwhile, Joe Biden said that US forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. The Japanese market was shut for old age day holiday.