Post Session: Quick Review

The Indian equity benchmarks attained another lifetime highs on Wednesday. Indian markets made slightly positive start, as traders got support after foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net-bought shares worth Rs 1,241.57 crore on November 29, as per provisional data available on the NSE. Markets traded near neutral lines with positive bias as investors awaited the gross domestic product (GDP) data for Q2 and the U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech due later in the day. Traders took a note of India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant’s statement that India will work with countries to promote digital public infrastructure in order to deepen financial inclusion and improve service delivery. India will officially assume the G20 presidency from the current chair Indonesia on December 1. He said India is taking over the presidency of the G20 at a time when the world is going through a lot of turmoil. He added there is a geopolitical crisis in Europe, 200 million people have gone below poverty line and 100 million people have lost jobs due to COVID era.

Indices continued to trade with limited gains in afternoon session, as some cautiousness came after capital markets regulator Sebi barred five brokerage houses for up to six months from making fresh applications seeking registration as commodity brokers as they failed to meet 'fit and proper' criteria in the NSEL case. The affected brokerage houses include India Infoline Commodities, Anand Rathi Commodities and Geofin Comtrade (banned for 6 months each), and Phillip Commodities and Motilal Oswal Commodities Broker (for 3 months each). But, in last leg of trade, markets traded largely steady to hit fresh record highs. Traders got encouragement amid a private report stating that global investors are bullish on Indian equities market in spite of the 86 per cent premium it commands over emerging market peers and on the back of a 17 per cent outperformance so far this year. Traders overlooked private report stated that India’s economy probably expanded at a slower pace last quarter as price pressures, rising interest rates and sluggish trade tempered demand in Asia’s third largest economy.

On the global front, European markets were trading higher as regional investors monitored the latest inflation data from the euro zone in November. Asian markets ended mostly in green, as investors pinned hopes on China eventually reopening its economy despite growing COVID lockdowns that pushed its factory and services sector activity deeper into contraction. Back home, traders took note of report that Finance Ministry has called a meeting of CEOs of banks, including top six private sector lenders, on December 5, 2022 to discuss ways to promote cross-border trade in the rupee instead of the US dollar. In scrip specific development, Zomato ended higher even after Alibaba Group is reportedly planning to sell 3% stake in the company worth $200 million through block deal.

The BSE Sensex ended at 63,099.65, up by 417.81 points or 0.67% after trading in a range of 62,648.38 and 63,303.01. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.06%, while Small cap index was up by 0.61%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 2.52%, Power up by 2.35%, Metal up by 1.96%, Auto up by 1.74% and Realty was up by 1.54%, while there were no losers on sectoral indices on the BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 4.32%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.21%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.96%, Power Grid Corp up by 1.92% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.71%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.02%, SBI down by 0.89%, HCL Tech down by 0.66% and ITC down by 0.58% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in order to deepen financial inclusion and improve service delivery, India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant has said India will work with countries to promote digital public infrastructure. India will officially assume the G20 presidency from the current chair Indonesia on December 1. He said India is taking over the presidency of the G20 at a time when the world is going through a lot of turmoil. He added there is a geopolitical crisis in Europe, 200 million people have gone below poverty line and 100 million people have lost jobs due to COVID era.

He said ‘There is a huge crisis of global debt. Almost 70 countries in the world are facing a debt crisis. We have the challenge of a global supply chain which is disrupted. You have the challenge of climate action. But every crisis is also an opportunity. And to my mind, this is a huge opportunity for India.’ He also said ‘At G20 we will all work with countries and in partnership with them towards promoting digital public infrastructure so that we can deepen financial inclusion, we can improve efficiency of service delivery, we can lead to better women's growth, we can solve challenges of the world by leveraging technology.’

He further said India's tech-enabled digital public infrastructure model driven by dynamic entrepreneurs is the very best in the world. He said ‘Now we must work with countries across the world to help drive digital inclusion at an unprecedented global space because we believe in one earth one family one future’. The G20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union.

The CNX Nifty ended at 18,758.35, up by 140.30 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 18,616.55 and 18,816.05. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.86%, Hindalco up by 3.38%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.48%, Grasim Industries up by 2.36% and Ultratech Cement up by 2.14%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.08%, SBI down by 1.00%, HCL Tech down by 0.72%, ITC down by 0.67% and Sun Pharma down by 0.36% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 59.20 points or 0.79% to 7,571.20, France’s CAC increased 62.64 points or 0.94% to 6,731.61 and Germany’s DAX was up by 124.64 points or 0.87% to 14,480.09.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday ahead of US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech later in the day for interest-rate clues. Chinese shares rose marginally with expectations that China will eventually relax Covid-19 restrictions and reopen its economy, despite disappointing factory and services sector data. Although, Japanese shares declined following a mixed Wall Street overnight and after data showed industrial production in Japan shrank more than expected in October.