Bourses trade at day’s high points in late afternoon session

Mirroring strong global cues, Indian equity markets traded at day’s high points in late afternoon session. Huge buying in HDFC and HDFC Bank stocks mainly lifted markets up. Besides, Rupee appreciated against dollar on Friday. Some additional support also came after US Secretary of Treasury Janet L Yellen pitched for India to play an important role in handling debt restructuring for low and middle-income countries as a G20 leader. The Treasury Secretary said that the US is pursuing an approach called “friendshoring” to diversify away from countries that present geopolitical and security risks to supply chain. Traders ignored report that Moody's slashed India's GDP growth projections for 2022 to 7 per cent from 7.7 per cent earlier as the global slowdown and rising domestic interest rates will dampen economic momentum. On the global front, all Asian markets and European markets were trading higher after U.S. inflation eased by more than expected, spurring hopes the Federal Reserve might scale down plans for more interest rate hikes.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61785.52, up by 1171.82 points or 1.93% after trading in a range of 61311.02 and 61801.62. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.16%, while Small cap index was up by 0.39%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 3.40%, TECK up by 2.89%, Metal up by 2.28%, Realty up by 1.78% and Bankex was up by 1.11%, while Auto down by 0.20%, PSU down by 0.12% and Power was down by 0.01% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 6.14%, HDFC Bank up by 6.09%, Infosys up by 4.05%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.68% and HCL Tech up by 3.41%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 0.84%, SBI down by 0.59%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.55%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.50% and ICICI Bank down by 0.44% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in line with the commitment of Government of India to strengthen the hands of States to accelerate their capital and developmental expenditure, the Union Government has released two instalments of tax devolution to State Governments amounting to Rs 1,16,665 crore, as against normal monthly devolution of Rs 58,333  crore.

This is the second time in FY23 that the Centre has transferred two instalments of tax devolution to state governments in the same month, with the previous occasion being in August. The Centre releases 14 instalments of tax devolution to states every year. As such, this involves two months where the instalment is double of the usual monthly amount.

According to the notification of Ministry of Finance, Rs 4721 crore released to Andhra Pradesh for November 2022, Rs 2050 crore to Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 3649 crore to Assam, Rs 11734 crore to Bihar, Rs 3975 crore to Chhattisgarh, Rs 450 crore to Goa, Rs 4058 crore to Gujarat and Rs 1275 crore to Haryana, among others.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18346.45, up by 318.25 points or 1.77% after trading in a range of 18259.35 and 18353.15. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC up by 6.22%, HDFC Bank up by 6.16%, Infosys up by 4.11%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.75% and Hindalco up by 3.58%. On the flip side, Eicher Motors down by 4.87%, NTPC down by 0.87%, Britannia down by 0.86%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.75% and SBI down by 0.69% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher, Hang Seng increased 1244.62 points or 7.74% to 17,325.66, Nikkei 225 surged 817.47 points or 2.98% to 28,263.57, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 503.80 points or 3.73% to 14,007.56, Jakarta Composite soared 122.37 points or 1.76% to 7,089.21, KOSPI rose 80.93 points or 3.37% to 2,483.16, Straits Times advanced 55.43 points or 1.75% to 3,228.61 and Shanghai Composite was up by 51.16 points or 1.69% to 3,087.29.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 21.34 points or 0.29% to 7,396.68, France’s CAC increased 57.28 points or 0.87% to 6,614.11 and Germany’s DAX was up by 52.03 points or 0.37% to 14,198.12.