Bourses remain in green in late afternoon session

Indian markets added traction in late afternoon session on the back of continue buying in broader indices. There were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.  IT, metal and banking counters were on the priority list of the buyers. Besides, traders awaited additional news out of the banking sector as well as some key U.S. economic data later in the week. Traders continued to take support as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the country's merchandise and services exports are likely to cross $760 billion in the current fiscal ending March 31 (FY23). Exports grew to $676 billion in 2021-22 from $500 billion. He added that at a time when the whole world is facing recession, high inflation and elevated interest rates, India is performing well. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green led by massive gains for Chinese tech behemoth Alibaba after it announced it would split into six groups. European markets were trading higher with UBS leading the banking sector higher after the Swiss lender recruited a former boss to lead the Credit Suisse integration.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57798.22, up by 184.50 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 57524.32 and 57905.70. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.20%, while Small cap index was up by 1.28%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.51%, Realty up by 1.15%, Industrials up by 0.97%, PSU up by 0.83% and Metal was up by 0.83%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.00%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.85%, HCL Tech up by 1.84%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.52% and Tata Motors up by 1.51%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 0.92%, Reliance Industries down by 0.72%, Power Grid down by 0.54%, Asian Paints down by 0.49% and ICICI Bank down by 0.48% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has said that housing prices have risen by 8-10 per cent in this fiscal year (FY23) and may further increase by 5 per cent in 2023-24. It has revised the outlook on the residential real estate sector to neutral from improving for FY24.

According to the report, the residential real estate market continued its upward trajectory in FY23 (sales growth of 15 per cent year-on-year for top eight real-estate clusters) despite pressure from higher input costs, increasing mortgage rates, and domestic and global recession. It said recessionary and inflationary pressures could impact near-term demand slightly, but it expects the market to absorb the pressure. It believed demand would pick up eventually. Overall, it expected the sales momentum to continue and housing sales to increase by 9 per cent year-on-year, supported by a steady, healthy demand.

Ind-Ra pointed out that construction costs rose 8-10 per cent year-on-year in FY23, with increased input costs causing the blended costs of developers to go up by 5-6 per cent year-on-year. However, it said developers might not hike prices over the next six-to-seven months so as to handle any macroeconomic concerns and might wait for the demand dynamics to play out. It noted that affordability had been a prime driver for housing sales in FY22.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17030.80, up by 79.10 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 16940.60 and 17058.45. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 7.51%, Adani Ports up by 5.95%, Eicher Motors up by 2.63%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.12% and Hero MotoCorp up by 2.10%. On the flip side, UPL down by 1.13%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.94%, Reliance Industries down by 0.72%, Asian Paints down by 0.48% and Power Grid down by 0.45% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Hang Seng advanced 407.75 points or 2.02% to 20,192.40, Nikkei 225 surged 365.53 points or 1.31% to 27,883.78, Jakarta Composite gained 79.11 points or 1.16% to 6,839.44, Taiwan Weighted added 68.28 points or 0.43% to 15,769.76, KOSPI increased 8.98 points or 0.37% to 2,443.92 and Straits Times was up by 7.19 points or 0.22% to 3,262.73. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 5.32 points or 0.16% to 3,240.06.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 54.19 points or 0.72% to 7,538.44, France’s CAC rose 82.29 points or 1.15% to 7,170.63 and Germany’s DAX was up by 104.05 points or 0.68% to 15,246.07.