Domestic indices trade higher in early deals after cautious start

Indian equity benchmarks made flat-to-negative start on Monday, tracking negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, as investors remain worried about the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations in the US, the resilience of the banking space and the geopolitical situation in Europe. However, soon markets gained momentum and are trading higher with decent gains in early deals tracking positive cues from Asian counterparts, ahead of debt ceiling talks between U.S. President Joe Biden and House Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy later in the day. Some support also came in as the RBI said rising for the second consecutive week, India's forex kitty jumped $3.553 billion to $599.529 billion for the week ended May 12. The overall reserves had jumped by $7.196 billion to $595.976 billion for the previous reporting week. 

Some optimism also came in as the engineering export promotion council said India’s exports of engineering goods to Russia jumped 11 times in April this year to $133.6 million as compared to year-ago month while the US and China markets continued to soften. Banking stocks are in focus with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showing that credit offtake remained robust early into the current financial year, with 15.5 per cent growth year on year (YoY) clocked till May 05, 2023 as against 11.8 per cent a year ago. In stock specific development, Punjab National Bank rallied after its quarterly profit grew multi-fold.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61918.49, up by 188.81 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 61579.78 and 61942.80. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.23%, while Small cap index was up by 0.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 2.00%, Power up by 0.98%, IT up by 0.73%, Healthcare up by 0.65% and PSU up by 0.55%, while Metal down by 0.21%, Telecom down by 0.20% and Bankex down by 0.03% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 1.90%, Power Grid up by 1.22%, Infosys up by 1.01%, Wipro up by 0.91% and Sun Pharma up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 0.58%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.42%, Nestle down by 0.38%, Asian Paints down by 0.23% and ICICI Bank down by 0.21% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol have reviewed the progress in the bilateral strategic partnership and agreed to deepen cooperation in areas like trade and investment, defence, semiconductors and cutting-edge technologies. They also discussed India's G20 presidency and South Korea's Indo-Pacific strategy. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said they reviewed the progress of the India, Republic of Korea Special Strategic Partnership and discussed ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation, particularly in areas of trade & investment, high technology, IT hardware manufacturing, defence, semiconductors and culture.

President Yoon Suk Yeol appreciated Prime Minister Modi's leadership of the G-20 and conveyed his support. Prime Minister looked forward to President Yoon's visit to India for the G20 Leaders' Summit in September this year. India is presently holding the presidency of the G20 grouping. Prime Minister Modi welcomed the Republic of Korea's Indo-Pacific strategy and the importance attached to India in it. South Korea launched its first comprehensive regional strategy, the Indo-Pacific Strategy in December 2022.

Yoon and Modi also discussed issues related to the Korean Peninsula, the Indo-Pacific and beyond, sharing the view that the two like-minded nations are building a firm framework for cooperation on the basis of democratic solidarity. They agreed to jointly contribute to regional peace and stability by harmonising South Korea's Indo-Pacific Strategy and India's Act East Policy. They also agreed to jointly support efforts to fight climate change and help develop emerging and developing nations in the so-called Global South.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18284.10, up by 80.70 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 18178.85 and 18286.20. There were 35 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 5.37%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 3.48%, Divi's Lab up by 2.55%, NTPC up by 1.96% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.82%. On the flip side, UPL down by 0.52%, Hindalco down by 0.49%, Indusind Bank down by 0.49%, Eicher Motors down by 0.43% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.41% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Hang Seng advanced 254.46 points or 1.31% to 19,705.03, Nikkei 225 surged 76.74 points or 0.25% to 30,885.09, KOSPI increased 22.94 points or 0.9% to 2,560.73, Jakarta Composite gained 16.39 points or 0.24% to 6,716.95, Shanghai Composite strengthened 3.55 points or 0.11% to 3,287.09 and Straits Times was up by 0.54 points or 0.02% to 3,203.13, while Taiwan Weighted lost 15.77 points or 0.1% to 16,159.15.