Bourses continue range - bound trade in green territory in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their range - bound trade in green territory in late afternoon session. Bajaj twins were the prime gainers among heavy-weights. Traders were taking small steps towards buying ahead of the Fed's rate hike decision later in the day. Besides, investors continued to cheer the steps taken by governments and central banks to rescue troubled U.S. and European banks. On the global front, all Asian markets were trading higher after a Wall Street rally led by the banks most beaten down by the industry's crisis. European markets were trading lower, as investors awaited the Federal Reserve's policy outcome after signs of troubles in the banking sector raised hopes of a tempered approach to further U.S. interest rate hikes.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58216.40, up by 141.72 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 58063.50 and 58418.78. There were 19 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.32%, while Small cap index was up by 0.62%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.55%, Healthcare up by 0.51%, Industrials up by 0.46%, Auto up by 0.37% and Utilities was up by 0.37%, while Metal down by 0.16%, Consumer Durables down by 0.10% and TECK was down by 0.01% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 2.31%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.24%, Sun Pharma up by 1.29%, Indusind Bank up by 1.10% and Tata Motors up by 0.81%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 1.58%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.59%, Infosys down by 0.49%, Nestle down by 0.44% and Axis Bank down by 0.44% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad has said that the total fund allocated under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) for Government Co-contribution, Payment of Incentive to Banks, Promotional Campaign, and Gap fund, since inception up to February, 2023, is Rs 2078.94 crore out of which an amount of Rs. 1529.41 crore has been released till February 2023.

Besides, the Minister stated that as per data provided by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), during FY 2019-20 (FY20), 2020-21 (FY21), and 2021-22 (FY22), enrolments under the Scheme were 68,83,373; 79,14,154 and 99,11,472 respectively. Enrolments grew more than 40% in FY22 from FY20.

Karad further underlined efforts being undertaken by PFRDA to promote APY and increase its coverage such as virtual capacity building programs for Banking Correspondents (BCs) and field staff of Banks, Self Help Group (SHG) members, bank-sakhis of SRLMs are being organised to propagate APY to eligible beneficiaries; physical APY outreach program and townhall meetings are organised at various locations pan India and activating online channels such as e-APY, net-banking, mobile app and bank’s web-portal, for easy online onboarding.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17147.00, up by 39.50 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 17107.85 and 17207.25. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC Life Insurance up by 2.70%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.27%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.24%, SBI Life up by 1.66% and Sun Pharma up by 1.23%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 1.52%, BPCL down by 1.48%, Coal India down by 1.41%, Apollo Hospital down by 0.85% and Adani Ports down by 0.70% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher, Nikkei 225 surged 520.94 points or 1.9% to 27,466.61, Hang Seng advanced 332.67 points or 1.7% to 19,591.43, Taiwan Weighted added 247.01 points or 1.57% to 15,760.46, Straits Times rose 48.22 points or 1.5% to 3,222.15, KOSPI increased 28.61 points or 1.18% to 2,416.96 and Shanghai Composite was up by 10.1 points or 0.31% to 3,265.75.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 14.46 points or 0.19% to 7,521.76, France’s CAC fell 19.98 points or 0.28% to 7,092.93 and Germany’s DAX was down by 8.79 points or 0.06% to 15,186.55.