Domestic indices continue to trade flat with positive bias

Domestic equity indices continued to trade flat with positive bias in late morning deals amid mixed global cues. However, gains remained capped as fears of a recession kept investors on the hook. Traders were concerned about the outlook for interest rates amid worries the Federal Reserve will continue aggressively raising rates despite signs of a slowdown in inflation. Traders also kept an eye on the earnings reports. Reliance Industries (RIL) will announce its financial performance later in day for the quarter ending December 31, 2022 (Q3FY23). On the BSE sectoral front, traders were seen pilling up position in PSU, Bankex, Power, Utilities and IT, while selling was witnessed in Telecom, Consumer Durables, FMCG, Metal and Realty.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green despite the broadly negative cues from US overnight, amid traders remaining cautious even as worries eased about interest rates following data showing cooling US inflation. Back home, in the stock specific development, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) dipped after the company's board approved an increase in the payment of royalty and technical fees to its parent Unilever. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60904.80, up by 46.37 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 60736.65 and 61001.18. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.09%, while Small cap index up by 0.09%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 0.62%, Bankex up by 0.56%, Power up by 0.32%, Utilities up by 0.32% and IT up by 0.28%, while Telecom down by 0.97%, Consumer Durables down by 0.56%, FMCG down by 0.48%, Metal down by 0.45% and Realty down by 0.33% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.35%, HDFC Bank up by 1.27%, HDFC up by 1.21%, Indusind Bank up by 1.15% and SBI up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.47%, Asian Paints down by 2.02%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.31%, Nestle down by 1.21% and Bajaj Finance down by 1.04% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in its latest data has showed that domestic air passenger traffic continued to register growth as passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-December 2022 were 12.32 crore as against 8.38 crore during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering annual growth of 47.05 per cent and monthly growth of 13.69 per cent. 

As per the data, nearly 1.27 crore passengers were carried by the domestic airlines during December in the country as against 1.12 crore during the same period last year. The passenger load factor or occupancy of the airlines remained on the higher side in the range of 80 to 90 per cent. Newly launched Akasa Air marked the occupancy of 83.8 per cent during December.

DGCA has stated that Spicejet recorded the highest occupancy of 92.7 per cent while Indigo witnessed 87.5 per cent of passenger load factor during the December month. Air India had 89.3 per cent and GoFirst had 92.6 per cent occupancy during the month. 
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18114.50, up by 6.65 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 18069.35 and 18145.45. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.36%, Coal India up by 1.23%, HDFC Bank up by 1.23%, HDFC up by 1.19% and Indusind Bank up by 1.09%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.36%, Asian Paints down by 1.85%, JSW Steel down by 1.45%, Nestle down by 1.37% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.32% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher; Hang Seng advanced 298.51 points or 1.38% to 21,949.49, Shanghai Composite strengthened 22.71 points or 0.7% to 3,262.99, KOSPI increased 12.69 points or 0.53% to 2,393.03, Jakarta Composite gained 9.27 points or 0.14% to 6,829.18, Straits Times rose 27.27 points or 0.83% to 3,303.45 and Nikkei 225 surged 135.13 points or 0.51% to 26,540.36.