Key gauges add some gains in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks added some gains in morning deals, amid healthy buying in Metal, IT and TECK stocks. Investor sentiment was boosted as foreign institutional investors turned net buyers of domestic shares, breaking their longest selling streak in six months. FIIs snapped a 17-day sales run, purchasing Rs 211 crore worth of equity shares on a net basis on January 17. Traders took a note of Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan’s statement that it is too premature to think that India will replace China when it comes to influencing global economic growth. However, the situation may change going forward as India is already the world's fifth largest economy, it is growing and has the potential to keep expanding. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. Markets anxiously awaiting a pivotal Bank of Japan (BOJ) meeting that could see the world's third-largest economy shift away from decades of ultra-low interest rates.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60853.14, up by 197.42 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 60569.19 and 60939.11. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.13%, while Small cap index up by 0.27%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.59%, IT up by 0.47%, TECK up by 0.44%, Consumer Durables up by 0.42%, Bankex up by 0.37% while, Realty down by 0.82%, Utilities down by 0.49%, Auto down by 0.41%, Power down by 0.31%, Energy down by 0.08% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.01%, HDFC Bank up by 1.48%, Wipro up by 1.41%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.25% and HDFC up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.32%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.77%, SBI down by 0.48%, Reliance Industries down by 0.38% and ICICI Bank down by 0.36% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the mines ministry has said the country's mineral production rose by 9.7 per cent in November 2022 as compared to the year-ago period. It stated the index of mineral production of mining and quarrying sector for the month of November, 2022 at 105.8, is 9.7 per cent higher as compared to the level in the month of November, 2021.

The output of important minerals in November included coal (761 lakh tonnes), lignite (32 lakh tonnes), natural gas (utilised) 2,779 million cubic metres, petroleum (crude) 24 lakh tonnes and bauxite at 2,228 thousand tonnes.

Further, it said diamond, phosphorite, bauxite, iron ore, coal, limestone and manganese ore were some important minerals that showed positive growth. However, important minerals showing negative growth included petroleum, natural gas, lignite, lead conc, copper concentrate, gold and chromite. Besides, the cumulative growth for April-November was 4.7 per cent over the corresponding period of the previous financial year, according to provisional figures of the Indian Bureau of Mines.    

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18107.55, up by 54.25 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 18032.45 and 18131.90. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 2.05%, Hindalco up by 1.78%, HDFC Bank up by 1.47%, Wipro up by 1.39% and HDFC up by 1.23%. On the flip side, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.62%, Adani Enterprises down by 1.42%, Tata Motors down by 1.30%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.88% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.68% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 28.6 points or 0.13% to 21,549.04, Shanghai Composite weakened 0.62 points or 0.02% to 3,223.62, KOSPI dropped 14.86 points or 0.62% to 2,364.53 and Jakarta Composite plunged 25.23 points or 0.37% to 6,742.11.

On the flip side, Straits Times rose 14.05 points or 0.43% to 3,294.56 and Nikkei 225 surged 669.97 points or 2.56% to 26,808.65.