Markets trade firm in early deals; Tata Motors leads gainers

Indian equity indices opened higher for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, amid bets for less-aggressive rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. Markets are trading firm in early deals on account of healthy buying in indices such as were IT, TECK and Auto. Some support came in as economic think-tank NCAER said business confidence has recovered from the lows of the pre-pandemic (2019-20) and the following two pandemic years. The NCAER-NSE Business Confidence Index (BCI) was higher at 126.6 in the third quarter of 2022-23 than the year-ago level of 124.4. though, upside remained capped as investment in the Indian capital markets through participatory notes slightly dropped to Rs 96,292 crore at the end of December 2022 from the preceding month on higher valuation of domestic markets.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed, in a thin trade, as most of the other regional markets are closed for the Lunar New Year holiday, including South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Gains were supported by the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight.

Back home, shares of Gold related businesses were in focus amid reports that the government is considering bringing the effective duty on Gold to below 12 per cent. Currently, the effective duty on gold is 18.45 per cent, which includes 12.5 per cent import duty, 2.5 per cent agriculture infrastructure development cess and other taxes. In stock specific development, Maruti Suzuki India gained ahead of its earnings release.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61211.95, up by 270.28 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 61089.77 and 61266.06. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.07%, while Small cap index was up by 0.23%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.97%, TECK up by 0.62%, Auto up by 0.38%, Bankex up by 0.31%, Consumer Durables up by 0.30%, while Metal down by 0.39%, Telecom down by 0.22%, Healthcare down by 0.14%, Realty down by 0.10%, Oil & Gas down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.82%, HDFC Bank up by 1.39%, Infosys up by 0.98%, Bajaj Finserv up by 0.91% and Bajaj Finance up by 0.88%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.85%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.69%, Power Grid down by 0.53%, Tata Steel down by 0.45% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.27% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), one of India’s premier economic policy research think tanks, in its latest survey report showed that business confidence has recovered from the lows of the pre-pandemic (2019-20) and the following two pandemic years (2020-21 and 2021-22). The NCAER-NSE Business Confidence Index (BCI) was higher at 126.6 in the third quarter of 2022-23 than it was recorded a year ago at 124.4 in 2021-22:Q3. However, sentiments continued to soften sequentially in the first, second and third quarters of 2022-23.

It further said sentiments relating to macro conditions remained relatively buoyant in the third quarter of 2022-23 as compared to the second. The share of positive responses increased for the component, ‘overall economic conditions will improve in the next six months’ and remained unchanged for the component, ‘present investment climate is positive’.

The think-tank said in contrast, sentiments pertaining to firms’ own conditions softened between the two quarters for the components, ‘financial position of firm will improve in the next six months’ and ‘present capacity utilisation is close to or above the optimal level’. NCAER carried out the 123rd Round of its Business Expectations Survey (BES) in December 2022, with support from the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18187.90, up by 69.35 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 18156.55 and 18201.25. There were 33 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 1.81%, HDFC Bank up by 1.26%, HCL Technologies up by 1.00%, Asian Paints up by 0.98% and Bajaj Finserv up by 0.92%. On the flip side, JSW Steel down by 0.88%, Axis Bank down by 0.72%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.68%, Power Grid down by 0.64% and Grasim Industries down by 0.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Nikkei 225 surged 461.45 points or 1.72% to 27,367.49, while Jakarta Composite was down by 30.48 points or 0.44% to 6,844.45.