Benchmarks trade flat in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks gave up initial gains and were trading flat in morning deals, as traders remained on sidelines ahead of upcoming quarterly earnings season, with IT giant TCS is likely to unveil its earnings on January 9. Traders got cautious as provisional data available on the NSE showed that foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 2,620.89 crore on January 4, 2023. Traders took a note of Bibek Debroy, chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, stated that India's GDP will be close to $20 trillion by 2047 and per capita income may reach $10,000 (at current value of USD). On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green on investor hopes for China's emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic, while the dollar stayed under pressure even as the U.S. Federal Reserve had a warning against market bets on interest rate cuts this year. Back home, a report stated that private sector banks are expected to report healthy growth in earnings during the October–December quarter of FY23. This would be aided by robust credit growth, margin expansion, benign credit costs, and lower provisioning burden.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60614.46, down by 42.99 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 60506.23 and 60877.06. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader index was trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.02%, while BSE Small cap index was trading flat.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.39%, Auto up by 0.77%, Oil & Gas up by 0.77%, Energy up by 0.72% and Capital Goods up by 0.57%, while Bankex down by 0.29%, Utilities down by 0.24% and Power down by 0.09% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 1.82%, Nestle up by 1.52%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.43%, NTPC up by 1.29% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.11%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 6.92%, Bajaj Finserv down by 5.28%, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.44%, ICICI Bank down by 0.76% and HDFC Bank down by 0.46% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) has said the Indian tyre industry will be able to scale a turnover of Rs 1 lakh crore in the next three years from Rs 75,000 crore currently on the back of new capacities available. Further, the industry has completed investment of Rs 35,000 crore in the last three years in new capacity creation and debottlenecking.

It stated demand is expected to grow stronger in view of an uptick in economic activities and the big push envisaged for infrastructure growth. Although the external environment continues to be challenging, it said, there are several tailwinds to tyre sector's growth domestically.

ATMA Chairman Satish Sharma that the investments that have been undertaken in a challenging time period, span across all the key tyre segments with major beneficiary being truck and bus radials (TBR) and passenger car radials (PCR) manufacturing.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18053.55, up by 10.60 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 18013.50 and 18120.30. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Britannia Industries up by 3.18%, Tata Consumer Product up by 2.11%, ITC up by 1.90%, Nestle up by 1.63% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.52%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 6.96%, Bajaj Finserv down by 5.29%, Apollo Hospital down by 1.65%, Power Grid Corp down by 1.42% and ICICI Bank down by 0.73% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 210.01 points or 1.01% to 21,003.12, Nikkei 225 surged 103.10 points or 0.4% to 25,819.96, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 95.32 points or 0.67% to 14,294.45, Straits Times advanced 48.78 points or 1.5% to 3,291.24, Shanghai Composite gained 27.47 points or 0.88% to 3,150.99 and KOSPI rose 8.91 points or 0.39% to 2,264.89.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lost 117.53 points or 1.73% to 6,695.71.