Domestic indices trade flat with negative bias in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made cautious start on Tuesday amid weakness in Asian counterparts, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders remained reluctant to make significant moves ahead of a busy week for earnings and key economic data releases in the US.  Also, traders reluctant to make any big moves ahead to the Bank of Japan's monetary policy meeting later in the week. Domestic indices are struggling for direction and are trading flat with negative bias in early deals as foreign fund outflows dented sentiments. According to provisional data from National Stock Exchange, foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 412.27 crore on April 24.

However, down side remained capped as the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) said that after weakening for three consecutive quarters, business sentiment turned buoyant in the fourth quarter (Q4) of the fiscal year ended March 31 (FY23). The Business Confidence Index (BCI) stood at 149.7 in Q4, up from 126.6 in Q3 FY23. Meanwhile, Mankind Pharma’s Rs 4,300-crore IPO opened for public subscription today, i.e., Tuesday, April 25, and will close on Thursday, 27 April.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60045.44, down by 10.66 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 59967.02 and 60205.93. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.08%, while Small cap index was up by 0.30%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 0.86%, Power up by 0.74%, Realty up by 0.65%, PSU up by 0.61%, Oil & Gas up by 0.56%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.15%, IT down by 0.45%, Healthcare down by 0.42%, TECK down by 0.34%, FMCG down by 0.10% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 2.03%, Indusind Bank up by 1.86%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.20%, SBI up by 0.84% and Axis Bank up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.63%, TCS down by 0.61%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.60%, Sun Pharma down by 0.58% and Wipro down by 0.54% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over India’s income level, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) Chairman Bibek Debroy has said that some states in India are already in the high-income category in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, and the country is likely to move to the upper-middle-income country by 2047. He further said any presumption that the Indian economic growth rate will be driven only by exports may be misleading because there are plenty of endogenous sources of growth.

He said ‘in 2047, India will probably move to the upper middle income category...Some states in India, at least in PPP terms, are already in the high income category’. According to the World Bank's definition, a country with a per capita annual income of over $12,000 is considered as a higher-income nation. India, which is the world's fifth largest economy, is currently classified as a developing nation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set an ambitious target of making India a developed nation by 2047. A developed country is typically characterised by a relatively high level of economic growth, a general standard of living, and higher per capita income as well as performing well on the Human Development Index (HDI) that includes education, literacy and health.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17740.40, down by 3.00 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 17716.85 and 17767.05. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 2.06%, Indusind Bank up by 1.77%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.31%, Britannia Inds up by 0.89% and SBI up by 0.87%. On the flip side, UPL down by 1.85%, Cipla down by 0.66%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.66%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.65% and Wipro down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 325.25 points or 1.63% to 19,634.69, Taiwan Weighted lost 203.16 points or 1.3% to 15,423.71, KOSPI dropped 45.87 points or 1.82% to 2,477.63, Straits Times fell 26.58 points or 0.8% to 3,297.97 and Shanghai Composite weakened 11.39 points or 0.35% to 3,264.02, while Nikkei 225 was up by 59.77 points or 0.21% to 28,653.29.