Markets trade firm in early deals; NTPC leads gainers with over 3% gains

Indian equity benchmarks continued their northward rally and made optimistic start of new month tracking firm cues from Asian counterparts. Markets are trading higher with solid gains of over half a percent each in early deals supported by drop in crude oil prices overnight coupled with steady foreign flows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 4,178.61 crore on October 31, according to the provisional data available on the NSE. Traders took encouragement as production of eight infrastructure industries that comprise the core sector recovered to grow at 7.9 per cent in September - a three-month high - owing to a favourable base and double-digit growth in output of fertilisers, cement, and electricity. Traders took note of report that the Central government's fiscal deficit widened to Rs 6.20 lakh crore in April-September, accounting for 37.3% of the full-year target.

Most of the Asian markets are trading higher, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, amid higher global bond yields even as traders are cautious as they await the US Fed's policy announcement on Wednesday. Some support also came as the manufacturing sector in Japan continued to expand in October the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed with a manufacturing PMI score of 50.7. Back home, sugar stocks were in focus as cooperative body NFCSFL’s data showed that sugar production in India, the world's major producer, fell 14.73 per cent year on year to 4.05 lakh tonnes in the first month of the 2022-23 marketing season. In scrip specific development, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals rose after launching Fingolimod capsules in the United States.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61094.77, up by 348.18 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 60998.86 and 61124.89. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.72%, while Small cap index was up by 0.39%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.32%, PSU up by 1.19%, Power up by 0.97%, Utilities up by 0.91%, Consumer Durables up by 0.63%, while Capital Goods down by 0.27%, Industrials down by 0.09%, Telecom down by 0.04% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 3.18%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.72%, SBI up by 1.71%, Power Grid up by 1.60% and HDFC Bank up by 1.42%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.95%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.57%, Tata Steel down by 1.33% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.91% were the few losers.

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over India’s economic situation, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V. Anantha Nageswaran has said that the country is likely to clock better growth than International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) projections next year supported by enhanced capital formation. Recently, the IMF projected 6.8% real growth for this year and 6.1% for next year for India.

He said ‘I think in fact, the growth rates for the coming years may be slightly more, slightly better than what these numbers are, because I think there is a possibility that India's capital formation cycle will do better after one decade of retrenchment’. He also said India's public digital infrastructure has probably crossed an inflection point and that will also be contributing to both formalisation of the economy and therefore higher growth.

He further said so, maybe there could be 0.5-0.8% addition to the 6% baseline numbers. He also said that fiscal policy and monetary policy are usually synchronised and counterbalance each other. On high debt-to-GDP ratio, he said sustainability is not a concern and it may reduce with asset monetisation. He added that India can use asset monetisation proceeds to whittle down it's debt and that will help improve the credit rating, that can be the best fiscal stimulus we can provide.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18123.10, up by 110.90 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 18084.90 and 18130.70. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 3.21%, Divi's Lab up by 2.72%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.65%, Apollo Hospital up by 2.27% and Adani Enterprises up by 1.97%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.96%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.49%, Tata Steel down by 1.38%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.94% and Coal India down by 0.67% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 rose 51.74 points or 0.19% to 27,639.20, Straits Times advanced 31.84 points or 1.03% to 3,124.95, Hang Seng surged 345.19 points or 2.35% to 15,032.21, Taiwan Weighted added 67.48 points or 0.52% to 13,017.23, KOSPI jumped 31.51 points or 1.37% to 2,325.12 and Shanghai Composite was up by 24.80 points or 0.86% to 2,918.28, while Jakarta Composite was down by 26.36 points or 0.37% to 7,072.53.