Domestic markets trade firm in early deals; Metal index surges over 2%

Indian equity benchmarks made gap-up opening on Thursday tracking gains in other Asian counterparts. Markets are trading firm with gains of over half a percent each in early deals on account of healthy buying in Metal, Consumer Durables and Realty counters. Some support came in as S&P Global Market Intelligence said Asia-Pacific region, which produces 35 per cent of the world GDP, is expected to dominate global economic growth in 2023, supported by regional free-trade agreements, efficient supply chains, and competitive costs. It also said Southeast Asia and India will benefit from trade diversification away from mainland China. Besides, describing India as an economic superpower, Britain said that it was working towards the best Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that is beneficial to both the countries. Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 247.01 crore on October 25, provisional data available on the NSE shows.

Asian markets are trading mostly higher despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, boosted by gains in materials and energy stocks amid the spike in commodity prices. Traders also continued to embrace the idea of the US Federal Reserve slowing the pace of interest rate hikes at upcoming meetings. Back home, real estate industry stocks were in focus with a private report that going by the momentum of housing sales in the ongoing festive period and that of the first three quarters of this year, 2022 is likely to breach the previous peak of 2014 with an all-time high sales across the top seven cities. In stock specific development, Dabur gained after it planned to invest Rs 325.87 crore in its Indore plant in Madhya Pradesh.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59947.11, up by 403.15 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 59792.32 and 59959.94. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.39%, while Small cap index was up by 0.50%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.54%, Consumer Durables up by 1.60%, Realty up by 1.09%, Bankex up by 0.98%, Utilities up by 0.94%, while IT down by 0.05% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan Company up by 3.21%, Tata Steel up by 2.62%, Sun Pharma up by 1.73%, HDFC up by 1.51% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.35%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.80%, HCL Technologies down by 0.64%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.62%, Infosys down by 0.28% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.20% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, S&P Global Market Intelligence in its latest note has said that Asia-Pacific region, which produces 35 per cent of the world GDP, is likely to dominate global economic growth in 2023, with the support of regional free-trade agreements, efficient supply chains, and competitive costs. It added that Southeast Asia and India will benefit from trade diversification away from mainland China.

It also expects that the energy- and mineral-producing regions of the Middle East and Africa too will achieve moderate growth. About the US, it said the ongoing tightening financial conditions due to monetary policy tightening will tip the US economy into a ‘mild recession’ starting in the fourth quarter of 2022 and extending through the second quarter of 2023. This month, it revised down US real GDP growth in 2023 from 0.9 to (-) 0.5 per cent.

On global inflation, it said that while achieving central bank inflation targets will be a multiyear process, there are possibilities for ‘significant progress’ in 2023. Global consumer price inflation is projected to slow from 7.7 per cent in 2022 to 5.1 per cent in 2023 and 3.0 per cent in 2024, provided inflation in the advanced economies settles at 2.1 per cent. It said global real GDP growth is projected to slow from 5.9 per cent in 2021 to 2.8 per cent this year and 1.4 per cent in 2023, thus averting an ‘outright recession’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17775.65, up by 119.30 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 17745.95 and 17783.90. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were JSW Steel up by 4.13%, Titan Company up by 3.25%, Hindalco up by 2.91%, Tata Steel up by 2.52% and Cipla up by 1.94%. On the flip side, Eicher Motors down by 0.83%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.68%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.63%, HCL Technologies down by 0.57% and SBI Life Insurance down by 0.54% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Hang Seng surged 266.48 points or 1.74% to 15,584.15, Taiwan Weighted advanced 170.29 points or 1.34% to 12,899.34, KOSPI rose 30.52 points or 1.36% to 2,280.08 and Jakarta Composite was up by 39.56 points or 0.56% to 7,083.50. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 lost 39.29 points or 0.14% to 27,392.55, Straits Times fell 5.10 points or 0.17% to 3,003.28 and Shanghai Composite was down by 2.08 points or 0.07% to 2,997.42.