Bourses trade near day's high points

Ignoring negative cues from global markets, Indian equity markets hit all-time highs and traded near day's high points in late afternoon session on sustained buying activities in index heavyweights, viz Reliance Industries, Nestle and Asian Paints among others. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were trading above half a percent. The overall market breadth was largely positive as 2059 shares were advancing and 1520 were declining, while 171 shares were unchanged on the BSE. Traders took note of report that the central banks of India and the UAE are discussing a concept paper on promoting bilateral trade in rupee and dirham with a view to reducing transaction cost. The central banks of both countries will discuss the standard operating procedures and modalities. The objective of the exercise is to reduce the cost of transactions. On the global front, all Asian markets and European markets were trading lower, as traders reacted the growing unrest in China amid the zero-COVID policy with record-high domestic daily Covid-19 cases and the unprecedented COVID restrictions in several cities in China.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62596.17, up by 302.53 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 61959.74 and 62701.40. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.56%, while Small cap index was up by 0.59%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.14%, Energy up by 2.00%, IT up by 0.54%, Auto up by 0.48% and PSU was up by 0.37%, while Metal down by 1.45%, Telecom down by 0.22%, Consumer Durables down by 0.18% and Realty was down by 0.08% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 3.28%, Nestle up by 1.50%, Asian Paints up by 1.40%, Wipro up by 1.25% and Bajaj Finserv up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.27%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.17%, HDFC Bank down by 0.88%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.86% and HDFC down by 0.55% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Credit rating agency, S&P Global Ratings in its latest report has slashed India's economic growth forecast to 7 per cent for current fiscal year (FY23) and 6% in the next fiscal year. The agency had in September projected the Indian economy to grow 7.3 per cent in 2022-23 and 6.5 per cent in next fiscal year (2023-24).

As per the report, the global slowdown will have less impact on domestic demand-led economies such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines. Indonesia and the Philippines should both grow at least 5% in 2023. In some countries the domestic demand recovery from COVID has further to go. This should support growth next year in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

S&P Global Ratings further projected inflation to average 6.8 per cent in India in current fiscal year and RBI's benchmark interest rate to rise to 6.25 per cent by March 2023. To control price rise, RBI has already hiked interest rate by 1.9 percentage points to a 3-year high of 5.9 per cent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18584.90, up by 72.15 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 18365.60 and 18614.25. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 4.36%, Reliance Industries up by 3.36%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.07%, Tata Consumer up by 1.82% and Nestle up by 1.41%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.18%, JSW Steel down by 1.58%, Apollo Hospital down by 1.28%, Tata Steel down by 1.27% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.10% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading lower, Hang Seng decreased 275.64 points or 1.57% to 17,297.94, Taiwan Weighted dropped 221.64 points or 1.5% to 14,556.87, Nikkei 225 slipped 120.20 points or 0.42% to 28,162.83, Jakarta Composite lost 35.79 points or 0.51% to 7,017.36, KOSPI fell 29.59 points or 1.21% to 2,408.27, Shanghai Composite declined 23.14 points or 0.75% to 3,078.55 and Straits Times was down by 3.93 points or 0.12% to 3,240.62.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 45.38 points or 0.61% to 7,441.29, France’s CAC decreased 35.28 points or 0.53% to 6,677.20 and Germany’s DAX was down by 62.16 points or 0.43% to 14,479.22.