Benchmarks continue to trade higher in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade higher in morning deals, led by gains in Metal, Capital Goods and Energy stocks. Sentiments remained positive as Fitch Ratings affirmed India's sovereign rating with a stable outlook and said that the country has a robust growth outlook and resilient external finances. It has affirmed the country’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BBB-' with a Stable Outlook and added that strong growth potential is a key supporting factor for the sovereign rating. Some support also came with Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth’s statement that Indian financial system is well protected and regulated despite the daunting global financial situation. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank’s gold reserves increased by 34.22 tonne year-on-year to reach 794.64 tonne at March-end 2023. The Reserve Bank held 760.42 metric tonnes of gold (including gold deposits of 11.08 metric tonnes) at the March-end of 2022. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red as expected talks in Washington about the debt ceiling raised concerns while U.S. inflation data later this week should add clarity on Federal Reserve monetary policy. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61991.41, up by 227.16 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 61808.50 and 61999.91. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index. 

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.62%, while Small cap index was up by 0.44%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.92%, Capital Goods up by 0.86%, Energy up by 0.83%, Auto up by 0.78% and Industrials up by 0.70%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 2.06%, Indusind Bank up by 1.75%, Tata Motors up by 1.72%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.41% and Asian Paints up by 1.33%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 0.91%, SBI down by 0.60%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.26%, HCL Technologies down by 0.15% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.11% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth said Indian financial system is well protected and regulated despite the daunting global financial situation. However, he said there are a set of indicators which provide early warning indicators so that the stresses are noticed well in time to take the corrective measures. 

Asked if the spillover of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and liquidity pressure faced by Credit Suisse was discussed, Seth said, it was not specifically brought but there’s no spillover coming. Talking about the Government Securities (G-Sec) market, he said with the use of technology, how a seamless experience can be provided to potential investors, whether they come through the RBI infrastructure, which is the market infrastructure route, or the Sebi infrastructure route, hitherto which was not possible but today with the use of technology is possible. So, he added that all stakeholders should work in a time-bound manner to create a seamless environment for investment.

He further said ‘the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) also deliberated on early warning indicators for the economy and our preparedness to deal with them, reducing the compliance burden on the regulated entities in the financial sector by improving regulatory quality, debt levels of corporates and households in India, simplification and streamlining of KYC framework to meet the needs of Digital India’.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18331.80, up by 67.40 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 18276.90 and 18334.30. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 2.34%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.09%, Indusind Bank up by 1.84%, Adani Enterprises up by 1.70% and Tata Motors up by 1.62%. On the flip side, UPL down by 2.02%, Sun Pharma down by 0.92%, SBI down by 0.67%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.33% and HCL Technologies down by 0.22% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted lost 4.77 points or 0.03% to 15,694.80, Hang Seng declined 108.36 points or 0.54% to 20,188.67, KOSPI dropped 4.09 points or 0.16% to 2,509.12, Jakarta Composite plunged 0.9 points or 0.01% to 6,768.73 and Straits Times fell 8.99 points or 0.28% to 3,248.67.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 surged 303.67 points or 1.05% to 29,253.55 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 13.14 points or 0.39% to 3,408.14.