Sensex, Nifty trim gains in early noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks trimmed most of their gains in early afternoon deals, impacted by mixed cues from other Asian markets along with selling at Realty and Telecom counters. Traders got cautious after Christian de Guzman - senior vice president at Moody's Investors Service and primary analyst for India said that India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth is seen declining to 5.6 percent in 2023-24, although it will still be one of the best performing large economies in the G-20. Besides, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in its latest data has showed that 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 were trading mixed, even after Japan's private sector returned to growth territory in January as travel subsidy programme uplifted services activity. The flash survey results from S&P Global showed that the au Jibun Bank flash composite output index advanced to 50.8 from 49.7 in the previous month. A reading above 50.0 indicates expansion.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61004.94, up by 63.27 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 60974.67 and 61266.06. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell by 0.27%, while Small cap index was down by 0.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.97%, TECK up by 0.54%, Auto up by 0.53%, Consumer Durables up by 0.46% and FMCG up by 0.13%, while Realty down by 1.28%, Telecom down by 1.12%, Metal down by 0.71%, Power down by 0.61% and PSU down by 0.61% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 3.10%, HCL Technologies up by 1.51%, HDFC Bank up by 1.10%, Infosys up by 0.82% and Asian Paints up by 0.79%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.73%, Power Grid Corporation of India down by 1.53%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.21%, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries down by 1.07% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, State Bank of India (SBI) Research in its latest report said that the emergency credit line guarantee scheme (ECLGS), launched during Covid to help small businesses tide over losses due to lockdowns, has helped save at least 14.6 lakh Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) which benefited from Rs 2.2 lakh crore in additional credit. This additional credit flow has saved around 12 per cent of the outstanding MSME credit from slipping into NPAs. In terms of people, it saved the livelihood of at least 6.6 crore people. 

The report also noted that there is evidence of MSME units becoming larger with several units crossing the threshold of Rs 250-crore turnover and turning into mid-sized corporates by the new definition of MSME units. With the change in MSME definition, in 2020 the government mandated all the MSMEs to register under the Udyam portal, which according to the report, is the way forward for the sector. A total of 1.33 crore MSMEs have Udyam certification now. As against this, the number of GST registration is only 1.40 crore.

The government recently launched Udyam assist platform, developed by Sidbi (Small Industries Development Bank of India), to bring all the informal micro enterprises into the formal ambit, which constitute around 99 per cent of MSMEs. According to the report, the Udyam portal could potentially result in an MSME revolution and their entry into the ambit of formal credit mechanism and can result in around 50 million such micro units. Besides, states like Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra could benefit with 2.6 crore registrations of such micro units. The country has around 64 million MSMEs as against 140 million in China.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18127.70, up by 9.15 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 18116.50 and 18201.25. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 3.13%, HCL Technologies up by 1.53%, HDFC Bank up by 1.13%, Infosys up by 0.85% and Asian Paints up by 0.81%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.65%, Power Grid Corporation of India down by 1.64%, Hindalco down by 1.36%, Grasim Industries down by 1.27% and SBI Life Insurance Company down by 1.24% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 surged 393.15 points or 1.44% to 27,299.19, while Jakarta Composite plunged 10.55 points or 0.15% to 6,864.38.