Domestic indices trim opening gains to trade flat with positive bias

Indian markets started the new week on optimistic note with decent gains on Monday as encouraging earnings results from index heavyweights aided the indices. Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank jumped 2 after posting strong quarterly results. Traders took encouragement with a private report that starting FY24 on a positive note, Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have been buyers throughout the trading sessions in April month so far. On a reasonable valuation of stocks, they invested Rs 8,643 crore in Indian equities. Besides, according to the RBI data, India’s forex reserves rose by $1.657 billion to $586.412 billion as of April 14, marking their second consecutive week of increase.

Soon, domestic indices trimmed some of their opening gains tracking weakness in Asian counterparts, as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of several key economic reports and corporate earnings numbers later in the week from the U.S. Markets are trading flat with positive bias in early deals. In stock specific developments, Sun Pharma lost after temporarily halting shipments from its Mohali facility. However, shares of HDFC Life Insurance surged after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed HDFC Bank or HDFC to increase the shareholding in HDFC Life and HDFC ERGO to more than 50 percent prior to the effective date of the merger.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59699.65, up by 44.59 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 59658.86 and 59958.33. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.05%, while Small cap index was up by 0.17%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 0.58%, Realty up by 0.58%, PSU up by 0.36%, Energy up by 0.29%, Oil & Gas up by 0.20%, while Healthcare down by 0.73%, Telecom down by 0.53%, TECK down by 0.46%, Utilities down by 0.43%, Power down by 0.31% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 1.79%, Wipro up by 1.15%, Titan Company up by 0.95%, SBI up by 0.94% and HCL Technologies up by 0.51%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.08%, TCS down by 0.89%, ITC down by 0.65%, Infosys down by 0.63% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.54% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union minister Piyush Goyal has said the world is now looking up to India and its industries and this is the right time for entrepreneurs and industry players to grasp the opportunity and grow exports. He added entrepreneurial abilities in the country with innovation, new ideas, new ways of marketing and branding products can unleash the true potential of the country.

He noted that on April 24, he has a meeting with ministers of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), consisting of four countries including Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, who are keen to negotiate with India. he also said ‘Other Gulf countries and Russia are also keen to negotiate with India’. Further, he said jewellery exporters have shown good promise and good results and the gem and jewellery industry is the diamond of India's exports.

He said ‘The industry's talent is spread across every zone and this industry can generate lots of jobs commensurate with the talent. The future is bright but we seek a collective commitment from every exporter to contribute to increasing exports despite headwinds and challenges’. He noted that the government is working towards ease of doing business honestly and efficiently and expects the industry players to engage in ethical practices.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17646.50, up by 22.45 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 17624.85 and 17709.20. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC Life Insurance up by 5.97%, Tata Consumer Products up by 2.66%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.97%, ICICI Bank up by 1.68% and Wipro up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.19%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.68%, TCS down by 0.79%, Cipla down by 0.74% and ITC down by 0.69% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 125.95 points or 0.63% to 19,949.78, KOSPI dropped 20.94 points or 0.82% to 2,523.46, Taiwan Weighted lost 7.45 points or 0.05% to 15,595.54, Straits Times fell 6.46 points or 0.19% to 3,315.36 and Shanghai Composite weakened 4.96 points or 0.15% to 3,296.30, while Nikkei 225 was up by 56.49 points or 0.2% to 28,620.86.