Sensex, Nifty remain higher in early noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks remained higher in early afternoon deals, on the back of positive cues from other Asian markets. Heavy buying at Consumer Durables and Telecom counters helped indices to hold trade in green. Sentiments were optimistic, as the Retirement fund body, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in its latest ‘Provisional Estimate of Net Payroll’ data report has showed that India created 1485948 new jobs in the month of January 2023 as against revised figure of 1280613 in December 2022.

However, upside remained capped, amid a private report stating that India’s economic activity held steady in February though there were early signs of slowing consumption amid concerns of future growth prospects and hawkish monetary policy. On the sectoral front, logistics sector stocks were in watch, as the commerce and industry ministry said that a task force will be set up for formulating a framework to determine logistics costs in the country.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, as producer prices in South Korea were up 0.1 percent on month in February, slowing from 0.4 percent in January. Individually, prices for agricultural, forestry and marine products fell 0.2 percent on month, while manufacturing products rose 0.1 percent, utilities fell 0.3 percent and services added 0.3 percent. On a yearly basis, producer prices climbed 4.8 percent, easing from 5.1 percent in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57840.99, up by 212.04 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 57730.09 and 57976.52. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.27%, while Small cap index was up by 0.42%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.45%, Telecom up by 1.10%, Energy up by 0.78%, Capital Goods up by 0.75% and Industrials up by 0.62%, while FMCG down by 0.73%, IT down by 0.71%, TECK down by 0.37%, Realty down by 0.24% and Healthcare down by 0.19% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 2.91%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.06%, Titan Company up by 1.87%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.27% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.24%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corporation of India down by 1.98%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.33%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.25%, ITC down by 1.12% and TCS down by 0.83% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat K Karad said that the government has taken various reforms following which asset quality of public sector banks (PSBs) has improved significantly with gross NPA ratio declining from the peak of 14.6 per cent in March 2018 to 5.53 per cent in December 2022. He said all PSBs are in profit with aggregate profit being Rs 66,543 crore in 2021-22, and that further increased to Rs 70,167 crore in first nine months of current financial year.

The minister said at the same time, resilience has increased with provision coverage ratio of PSBs rising from 46 per cent to 89.9 per cent in December 2022, adding capital adequacy ratio of PSBs improved significantly from 11.5 per cent in March 2015 to 14.5 per cent in December 2022. Total market cap of PSBs (excluding IDBI Bank, which was categorised as private sector bank in January 2019) increased from Rs 4.52 lakh crore in March 2018 to Rs 10.63 lakh crore in December 2022. He also said banks, earlier placed under Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework by RBI, have made significant improvement.

Talking about various measures taken to improve the financial health of PSBs, Karad said the government implemented a comprehensive 4R strategy of Recognising NPAs transparently, Resolution and recovery, Recapitalising PSBs, and Reforms in the financial ecosystem. Major banking reforms undertaken by the government over the last eight years addressed credit discipline, responsible lending and improved governance, besides adoption of technology, amalgamation of banks, and maintaining general confidence of bankers.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17045.45, up by 57.05 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 17016.00 and 17086.15. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC Life Insurance Company up by 3.30%, Reliance Industries up by 2.92%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.51%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.10% and Titan Company up by 1.96%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corporation of India down by 1.98%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.30%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.29%, ITC down by 1.14% and Britannia Industries down by 1.07% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; Hang Seng advanced 171.64 points or 0.9% to 19,172.35, Taiwan Weighted added 93.48 points or 0.6% to 15,513.45, Jakarta Composite gained 58.8 points or 0.89% to 6,671.29, Straits Times rose 32.99 points or 1.05% to 3,172.75, Shanghai Composite strengthened 19.43 points or 0.6% to 3,254.34 and KOSPI increased 9.15 points or 0.38% to 2,388.35.