Markets continue to trade in green in late morning deals

Domestic equity indices continued to trade in green in late morning deals with metal-related stocks leading the surge on the back of positive global cues. Sentiments were upbeat as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said the Indian economy is resilient with financial stability maintained with a well-capitalised banking sector, amid global uncertainties and shocks. Sentiments were further supported by Indian rupee appreciating 7 paise to 82.87 against the dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange on increased selling of the US currency by exporters and banks. On the sectoral front, Metal, Realty, Consumer Durables, PSU and Oil & Gas witnessed the maximum gains in trade, while Healthcare and Bankex remained the only losers on the BSE sectoral space.

On the global front, Asian markets were mostly trading in green, following positive cues from US markets overnight.  Back home, in stock specific development, Lotus Chocolate Company (Lotus) surged after Reliance Consumer Products (RCPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures made an open offer to acquire 3.34 million shares or 26 per cent stake in the company at price of Rs 115.50 per share.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61219.17, up by 85.29 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 61202.16 and 61392.68. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.52%, while Small cap index up by 1.01%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.04%, Realty up by 1.00%, Consumer Durables up by 0.89%, PSU up by 0.84% and Oil & Gas up by 0.65%, while Healthcare down by 0.25% and Bankex down by 0.24% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 3.37%, Bajaj Finance up by 3.00%, Tata Steel up by 1.61%, Titan up by 1.38% and Tata Motors up by 0.86%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.12%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.73%, Indusind Bank down by 0.65%, HCL down by 0.62% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its data has said that the India's current account deficit (CAD) widened to 4.4 per cent of the GDP in Q2 (July-September) of FY23, from 2.2 per cent of GDP during Q1FY23, due to higher trade gap. It noted that the country’s CAD recorded a deficit of $36.4 billion in July-September 2022-23, up from $18.2 billion (2.2 per cent of GDP) in the first quarter of the fiscal and $9.7 billion (1.3 per cent of GDP) in the year ago period. 

The data further indicated that underlying the current account deficit in Q2FY23 was the widening of the merchandise trade deficit to $83.5 billion from $63 billion in first quarter of 2022-23 and an increase in net outgo under investment income. It also said the current account deficit for April-June quarter of 2022-23 has been revised downwards due to downward adjustment in Customs data.

It further stated that India recorded a current account deficit of 3.3 per cent of GDP in H1:2022-23 on the back of a sharp increase in the merchandise trade deficit, as compared with 0.2 per cent in H1:2021-22. Services exports reported a growth of 30.2 per cent on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis on the back of rising exports of software, business and travel services. Net services receipts increased both sequentially and on a y-o-y basis.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18222.85, up by 31.85 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 18206.45 and 18265.25. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finserv up by 3.69%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.80%, ONGC up by 2.14%, Tata Steel up by 1.61% and Hindalco up by 1.51%. On the flip side, Eicher Motors down by 1.35%, SBI Life down by 1.30%, ICICI Bank down by 1.18%, Cipla down by 1.06% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.90% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 24.62 points or 0.09% to 26,118.29, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 52.67 points or 0.37% to 14,137.69, Straits Times advanced 7.90 points or 0.24% to 3,257.14, Shanghai Composite gained 17.22 points or 0.56% to 3,090.92, Jakarta Composite soared 12.68 points or 0.18% to 6,872.76 and Hang Seng increased 80.72 points or 0.41% to 19,821.86.  However, KOSPI fell 44.05 points or 1.93% to 2,236.40.