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

In volatile trading session, Indian benchmarks gained strength and traded at day’s high points in late afternoon session.  Buying in IT stocks supported the markets to recover from lows. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were also trading in green. Sector wise, banking stocks remained in limelight after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its 'Trends and Progress of Banking in India' report for FY22 has said that Indian banks' gross non-performing assets (GNPA) declined to 5.8 per cent in March 2022, but the present macroeconomic environment can impact lenders' health. It stated the GNPAs, which touched a peak in FY18 following the asset quality review, have been declining sequentially to reach 5 per cent in September 2022.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as China's move to reopen after abandoning its zero-Covid policy revived inflation fears. European markets were trading mostly in green after a long Christmas holiday weekend as investors assessed Beijing's steps towards reopening its COVID-battered economy.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61005.30, up by 77.87 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 60713.77 and 61075.33. 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 0.36%, while Small cap index was up by 0.55%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.58%, Utilities up by 1.05%, Power up by 1.04%, Oil & Gas up by 0.98% and Energy was up by 0.96%, while Metal down by 0.33%, Healthcare down by 0.20% and FMCG was down by 0.12% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan Company up by 3.17%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.66%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.55%, Indusind Bank up by 1.35% and Power Grid up by 1.29%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 0.95%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.76%, Tata Steel down by 0.49%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.39% and Tata Motors down by 0.36% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid higher inflation, slowing exports and an improving but still weak domestic demand, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its ‘Research and Ratings Compendium’ has said that the ratio of Upgrades/Downgrades is likely to moderate.  The agency expects the economic growth to slow down to 4.0% - 4.5% in 2HFY23 from 9.7% in 1HFY23.

As per the report, the domestic economic activity from 2022 has been largely resilient to global macroeconomic headwinds. The economy has mostly returned to normalcy, as seen from high frequency indicators, including Index of Industrial Production (IIP) remaining positive for most part of 1HFY23 and mobility indicators returning to pre-pandemic levels.

It however said that the contraction of IIP in October 2022 along with high inflation, weak domestic demand and slowing exports are indicative of the challenges facing the economy resulting from the deteriorating global macroeconomic conditions for the rest of the fiscal.

Ind-Ra further noted that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has disrupted the global supply-chain as well as led to an upsurge in global energy and food prices. Major economies worldwide are witnessing runaway multi-decade high inflation, leading to a similarly paced global monetary policy tightening.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18153.50, up by 21.20 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 18068.35 and 18173.10. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan Company up by 3.18%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.60%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.40%, Indusind Bank up by 1.32% and Grasim Industries up by 1.22%. On the flip side, Apollo Hospital down by 1.20%, Hindalco down by 0.99%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.99%, Divi's Lab down by 0.86% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.82% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Nikkei 225 slipped 107.37 points or 0.41% to 26,340.50, Jakarta Composite lost 72.51 points or 1.05% to 6,850.52, Shanghai Composite declined 8.17 points or 0.26% to 3,087.40, Taiwan Weighted dropped 155.33 points or 1.08% to 14,173.10, KOSPI fell 52.34 points or 2.24% to 2,280.45 and Straits Times was down by 4.05 points or 0.12% to 3,262.33. On the flip side, Hang Seng was up by 305.85 points or 1.56% to 19,898.91.

European markets were trading mostly in green, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 57.31 points or 0.77% to 7,530.32 and France’s CAC was up by 2.88 points or 0.04% to 6,553.54. On the flip side, Germany’s DAX was down by 14.96 points or 0.11% to 13,980.14.