Benchmarks extend gains in morning session

Indian equity benchmarks extended their gains in morning session, amid an overall positive trend in the global markets and ahead of the presentation of Union Budget 2023-24. Traders took some encouragement with Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran’s statement that India has the potential to grow at 6.5-7 per cent and will become a $5 trillion economy by 2025-26 and $7 trillion by 2030 depending on exchange rate fluctuation. Sentiments remained up-beat as Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said increasing exports to markets such as Brazil, South Africa and Saudi Arabia are boosting the growth of the country's outbound shipments. Traders overlooked a private survey showed India's manufacturing industry started the year on a weaker note, expanding at the slowest pace in three months in January as output and sales growth slackened. The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by S&P Global, fell to 55.4 last month from 57.8 in December. Still, it remained well above the 50-mark separating growth from contraction for a 19th straight month. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street with traders remaining cautious ahead of the US Fed rate decision and accompanying statement later in the day.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60043.65, up by 493.75 points or 0.83% after trading in a range of 59807.68 and 60066.87. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.08%, while Small cap index was up by 1.07%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.43%, Bankex up by 1.32%, Consumer Durables up by 0.99%, Industrials up by 0.99% and Realty up by 0.94%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.88%, Energy down by 0.87%, Utilities down by 0.24% and Power down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 2.80%, Tata Steel up by 2.09%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1.69%, NTPC up by 1.52% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.50%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.36%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.33%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.10% and ITC down by 0.09% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) has said electronic goods export is likely to grow by 36.8 per cent to cross Rs 1.6 lakh crore in the current fiscal (FY23), with mobile phone export accounting for nearly half of the total pie. The electronic goods export in 2021-22 was Rs 1,16,937 crore. The mobile phone exports in FY 2021-22 were Rs 45,000 crore, and is estimated to reach more than Rs 75,000 crore in FY 2022-23.

According to it, the total exports of electronic goods from India from April to December 2022 grew to Rs 1,33,313 crore against Rs 81,780 crore in 2021. The growth in electronic goods exports is primarily led by mobile phone exports, which are estimated to have increased over Rs 60,000 crore in April-December 2022 from Rs 27,288 crore in the same period a year ago.

ICEA Chairman Pankaj Mohindroo said ‘The growth in mobile phone exports during April-December 2022 is as per plan and we are confident that we are on course to achieve USD 9-10 billion exports in FY 2022-23.’ The top exporting destinations for mobile phones from India during April-December 2022 include UAE, United States, Netherlands, United Kingdom and Italy.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17807.45, up by 145.30 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 17735.70 and 17815.30. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 2.96%, Divi's Lab up by 2.75%, Tata Steel up by 2.21%, Britannia Inds up by 1.91% and Tata Consumer Product up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Adani Enterprises down by 2.72%, Sun Pharma down by 1.96%, Adani Ports &SEZ down by 1.07%, BPCL down by 0.60% and Coal India down by 0.42% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted added 77.05 points or 0.5% to 15,342.25, Hang Seng advanced 60.02 points or 0.27% to 21,902.35, Shanghai Composite strengthened 3.26 points or 0.1% to 3,258.93, KOSPI increased 8.47 points or 0.35% to 2,433.55, Jakarta Composite gained 30.74 points or 0.45% to 6,870.08 and Nikkei 225 surged 16.36 points or 0.06% to 27,343.47.

On the flip side, Straits Times fell 5.57 points or 0.17% to 3,360.10.