Sensex, Nifty trade near day’s high

Indian equity benchmarks extended their gains in early afternoon deals to trade near their intraday high points, on the back of buying at Realty and Capital Goods counters. Traders were positive amid a private reports stating that private investment in India is picking up in some sectors but will need a government push to sustain the pace. Besides, the finance ministry said that the multifaceted nature of the RBI’s regulatory actions, improved bank balance sheets, and attunement of the banking system to frequent interest rate cycles augur well for India’s financial stability and significantly reduce the probability of an SVB-like event from occurring in India.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed after Singapore's industrial production declined for the sixth straight month in March, largely due to a slump in chemical and electronics output. The data from the Economic Development Board revealed that industrial production fell 4.2 percent year-on-year in March, slower than the 9.7 percent fall in February. Excluding bio-medical manufacturing, industrial production slid 6.0 percent annually in March, after a 5.8 percent fall in the previous month.

Back home, fertilizer stocks were in focus, after credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) maintained a neutral outlook for the fertilizer sector for FY24, amid the government of India’s continued policy-level support to the industry by way of the healthy subsidy budget. A neutral outlook is also on the back of moderation in the raw material prices across urea and nutrient-based fertilizers starting 4QFY23, coupled with the likelihood of a continued healthy demand in view of the GoI’s focus to increase farmer income.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60219.81, up by 89.10 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 59954.91 and 60230.12. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.16%, while Small cap index was up by 0.37%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.04%, Capital Goods up by 1.01%, Telecom up by 0.95%, Industrials up by 0.74% and Auto up by 0.51%, while Metal down by 0.70%, Oil & Gas down by 0.18%, Energy down by 0.03% and Healthcare down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 1.39%, Power Grid Corporation of India up by 1.33%, Indusind Bank up by 1.16%, Tata Motors up by 1.05% and Nestle up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.79%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.77%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.70%, Sun Pharma down by 0.48% and NTPC down by 0.35% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the government is not concerned about flash sales on online platforms but is against predatory pricing and other cheating methods used by e-retailers to restrict consumer choices. He also said that often consumers purchasing goods on the e-marketplace platform to avail benefits of flash sales are diverted to entities preferred or promoted by the online retailer, which is cheating and against the foreign direct investment rules.

Goyal said that there are two objections, one is following the practice of predatory pricing by dumping of goods, and the other is methods to restrict consumer choices. He said ‘we are only trying to stop that cheating through the e-commerce policy that we are coming out with’. Citing China, he said dumping of goods at 'very' low prices for a long period of time kills domestic manufacturing and forces consumers to buy goods at high prices.

He further said that foreign e-commerce players have deep pockets and for them investing a few billion dollars in India and registering 'huge' losses are not a problem. They are only into accretion of customers at any prices and cost, he said. He reiterated that the country's FDI laws have to be respected by the e-commerce players and the marketplace has to operate as a marketplace. He said ‘the marketplace players can sell products as their own single brand platform, we have no problem, that is perfectly possible and permitted, but you cannot mix the marketplace model with your single brand retail model’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17788.30, up by 19.05 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 17711.20 and 17793.70. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 1.79%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.43%, SBI Life Insurance up by 1.38%, Power Grid Corporation of India up by 1.25% and Indusind Bank up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone down by 1.21%, Hindalco down by 1.13%, JSW Steel down by 0.84%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.78% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.77% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 slipped 203.6 points or 0.72% to 28,416.47, KOSPI dropped 4.19 points or 0.17% to 2,484.83, Shanghai Composite weakened 4.1 points or 0.13% to 3,260.77 and Straits Times fell 1.12 points or 0.03% to 3,295.44, while Taiwan Weighted added 3.9 points or 0.03% to 15,374.63, Jakarta Composite gained 38.36 points or 0.56% to 6,860.17 and Hang Seng advanced 170.03 points or 0.87% to 19,787.91.