Bulls dominate over Dalal Street; Nifty surpasses 17,950 mark

Indian equity benchmarks extended their previous session’s gains with gap-up opening on Monday amid strong global cues coupled with steady foreign flows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 1,568.75 crore on 28 October, according to the provisional data available on the NSE. Markets are trading in fine-fettle with gains of over a percent each in early deals. Sentiments got a boost as Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said that foreign trade would become a truly defining feature that would help India become a $30 trillion economy in the Amrit Kaal. Some support also came with a private report that India is expected to surpass its tax collection goal by more than Rs 2 lakh crore ($24.3 billion) in the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, the data released by Reserve Bank of India showed India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves declined $3.8 billion to $524.5 billion for the week ending October 21. Reserves are at their lowest levels since July 2020. Since last year, reserves have declined by $115 billion.

Most of the Asian markets are trading higher, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, as traders remained optimistic the US Fed will slow the pace of interest rate hikes in the coming months. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry or METI said the value of industrial production in Japan was up 9.8% on year in September. Back home, investors are looking ahead to the more of financial results from India Inc for domestic cues. On the sectoral front, sugar stocks were in focus with a private report that the government has extended restrictions on sugar exports till October 31 next year, a move aimed at increasing availability of the commodity in the domestic market. In stock specific development, JSW Energy surged after it registered a 35.63% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 456.57 crore in Q2FY23.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60597.95, up by 638.10 points or 1.06% after trading in a range of 60246.96 and 60603.86. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.74%, while Small cap index was up by 0.44%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.69%, IT up by 1.38%, TECK up by 1.37%, Healthcare up by 1.06%, Consumer Durables up by 1.05%, while there was no loser on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.04%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.44%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.22%, Infosys up by 1.97% and HCL Technologies up by 1.72%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 0.80% and Tata Steel down by 0.39% were the few losers.

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over India’s growth, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has said that ‘foreign trade would become a truly defining feature in the years to come as we work in the Amrit Kaal in the next 25 years and progress towards a developed India’. He said this would help India become a $30 trillion economy, ambitious target, in the Amrit Kaal. He added that ‘This is the path that we are going to achieve. It's very much achievable and doable’.

He said ‘We have reached that inflection point, we are at the cusp, where we are going to take off. If we have the ambition to be at least ten times in the next 25 years...we are looking to cross the $30 trillion economy with a per capita GDP of 15,000 dollar’. He pointed out that the Indian economy grew 11.8 times in dollar terms in the last 30 years to $3.5 trillion currently, from less than $300 billion. He highlighted that India was a bright spot in the world currently, where other countries were in recession, where inflation was five times high than was usually seen in some countries.

He said the world was seeking to engage with India because it's a growing economy. Political stability, decisive leadership and deft handling of the economy have made the world look up to India. He noted ‘As we go into a developed economy status, our imports and exports are going to increase manifold. We have to have seamless foreign trade, movement of goods and services’. He said the world wanted to do ‘more and more business with us.’ He said ‘The world wants Free Trade Agreements with us. World wants to expand trading relationship and friendship with India, looking at the potential in terms of a large market and the potential we have to help their economies survive and grow’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17970.30, up by 183.50 points or 1.03% after trading in a range of 17899.90 and 17972.15. There were 48 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.97%, Eicher Motors up by 2.49%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.30%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.25% and Infosys up by 1.92%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 0.66% and Tata Steel down by 0.49% were the few losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 451.80 points or 1.67% to 27,557.00, Straits Times rose 67.12 points or 2.19% to 3,126.31, Hang Seng advanced 87.13 points or 0.59% to 14,950.19, Taiwan Weighted jumped 164.71 points or 1.29% to 12,953.13, KOSPI added 23.23 points or 1.02% to 2,291.63 and Jakarta Composite was up by 45.67 points or 0.65% to 7,101.71, while Shanghai Composite was down by 0.98 points or 0.03% to 2,914.95.