Benchmarks erase losses to trade flat in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks erased initial losses and were trading flat in morning deals, as traders await the country’s November retail inflation data and October’s industrial production (IIP) data set to be released later in the day. Traders took some support as the Finance Ministry said the net direct tax collection grew 24 per cent to Rs 8.77 lakh crore in the April-November of the current fiscal. This represents 61.79 per cent of the full-year Budget Estimates (BE) of direct tax collection for 2022-23 (April-March). Traders also took a note of report that the government has asked trade bodies and banks to explore opportunities for trade in rupee with more countries after having facilitated rupee trade with Russia, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital markets on Friday as they offloaded shares worth Rs158.01 crore, according to exchange data. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red as markets awaited a flurry of rate decisions from the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and other.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62204.89, up by 23.22 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 61676.15 and 62208.96. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.10%, while Small cap index was up by 0.31%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.58%, Oil & Gas up by 0.53%, Metal up by 0.37%, PSU up by 0.27 and Industrials up by 0.25%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.91%, IT down by 0.39%, TECK down by 0.34%, Healthcare down by 0.17% and FMCG down by 0.10% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC Bank up by 1.24%, HDFC up by 1.06%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.78%, Indusind Bank up by 0.70% and Tata Steel up by 0.63%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.05%, Titan Company down by 1.39%, Infosys down by 0.92%, Sun Pharma down by 0.84% and Axis Bank down by 0.77% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, International Air Transport Association (IATA) -- chief Willie Walsh has said that the Indian civil aviation market has exciting and significant opportunities but taxation has always been an issue which also makes the industry less competitive.

India is seeing a ''much stronger recovery'' than the Asia Pacific region in general but there could be challenges in terms of getting new aircraft and spare parts. While the Indian market has not seen the pace of growth that was seen in China, the potential exists, he said and emphasised that in India, he sees a really exciting market and opportunities.

After being severely impacted by the pandemic, the country's civil aviation sector is on the recovery path. He added ‘When you look at India, I see massive opportunities, the size, population, growing wealth, lack of other alternative infrastructure for travel’. The International Air Transport Association is a global grouping that represents around 300 airlines, including those from India, and its members account for nearly 83 per cent of the global air traffic.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18502.60, up by 6.00 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 18345.70 and 18506.35. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Divi's Lab up by 1.40%, Coal India up by 1.35%, HDFC Bank up by 1.30%, HDFC up by 1.03% and Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.81%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.07%, Titan Company down by 1.39%, Eicher Motors down by 1.09%, Infosys down by 0.91% and HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.89% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted dropped 98.47 points or 0.67% to 14,606.96, Nikkei 225 slipped 41.33 points or 0.15% to 27,859.68, Shanghai Composite declined 20.32 points or 0.63% to 3,186.63, KOSPI fell 11.66 points or 0.49% to 2,377.38, Jakarta Composite lost 31.61 points or 0.47% to 6,683.51 and Hang Seng decreased 374.93 points or 1.88% to 19,525.94.

On the flip side, Straits Times advanced 1.45 points or 0.04% to 3,247.42.