Benchmarks continue to trade in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in green in morning deals, mainly due to buying in PSU, Energy and Oil & Gas stocks. Sentiments remained positive as Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Executive Director (India)- International Monetary Fund Designate, said India has emerged as a 'positive spot' in the world economy, due to the well-designed policy responses that were implemented during the COVID crisis. Some support also came as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman exuded confidence on India's relative and absolute growth performance in the rest of the decade and forecast the country's growth rate to be around 7 per cent this financial year amid reports of a global recession and downgrading of growth rates of almost all major economies. However, gains remain capped as investors awaited domestic retail inflation data and quarterly earnings results from IT firm Wipro later in the day. Also, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net sellers to the tune of Rs 4,612.67 crore on October 11, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red amid growing risk aversion stemming from the U.S. rate hike fears and escalating geopolitical tensions. The IMF said it anticipates 2023 will feel like a recession for millions around the world, echoing warnings from the United Nations, the World Bank and many global CEOs. Back home, aviation industry stocks remained in watch as global airlines' grouping IATA said India is a key aviation market for the Asia Pacific region as well as the rest of the world and is expected to see robust air travel demand, amid the country's domestic air passenger traffic inching towards pre-COVID levels.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57363.03, up by 215.71 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 57144.44 and 57458.53. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.13%, while Small cap index was up by 0.01%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 0.95%, Energy up by 0.82%, Oil & Gas up by 0.76%, Power up by 0.74% and Utilities up by 0.72%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.31%, Capital Goods down by 0.29%, Healthcare down by 0.17%, Telecom down by 0.17% and Industrials down by 0.10% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid Corporation up by 3.41%, HCL Technologies up by 2.49%, Axis Bank up by 1.66%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.46% and NTPC up by 1.30%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.41%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.03%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.82%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.26% and ICICI Bank down by 0.20% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has exuded confidence on India's relative and absolute growth performance in the rest of the decade and forecast the country's growth rate to be around 7 per cent this financial year amid reports of a global recession and downgrading of growth rates of almost all major economies.

She said India's foundation for the ongoing successful recovery from the pandemic was laid when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014. She stated ‘I am aware that growth forecasts around the world are being revised lower. We expect India's growth rate to be around 7 per cent this financial year. More importantly, I am confident of India's relative and absolute growth performance in the rest of the decade.’

However, Sitharaman said that she observed the Indian economy is not exempt from the impact of swirling global currents. She stated ‘After the unprecedented shock of the pandemic, came the conflict in Europe with its implications for energy, fertiliser and food prices. Now, synchronised global monetary policy is tightening in its wake. So, naturally, growth projections have been revised lower for many countries, including India. This triple shock has made growth and inflation a double-edged sword.’

She underlined India has carved out its growth trajectory supported by the above-normal south-west monsoon, public investment, improvement in capacity utilisation, a broad-based revival in credit growth, strong corporate balance sheets, upbeat consumer and business confidence and receding threat of the pandemic.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17037.95, up by 54.40 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 16976.75 and 17071.65. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid Corp up by 3.29%, HCL Tech. up by 2.50%, BPCL up by 2.24%, Coal India up by 1.95% and Axis Bank up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.40%, Adani Enterprises down by 1.57%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.06%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.95% and Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.78% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 0.03 points or 26353.22% to 6.88, Taiwan Weighted dropped 0.01 points or 13076.91% to 1.94, Jakarta Composite lost 0.62 points or 6939.15% to 42.76, Straits Times trembled 0.36 points or 3101.55% to 11.31, Shanghai Composite declined 1.23 points or 2976.72% to 36.55 and Hang Seng decreased 2.00 points or 16758.27% to 336.84.

On the flip side, KOSPI rose 0.42 points or 2191.35% to 9.22.