Benchmarks remain in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks remained in green in morning deals, amid rally in Asian markets along with buying in index heavyweights Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports & SEZ and Divi's Lab. Sentiments remained positive with the RBI stating that 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 support also came as retail inflation for farm workers and rural labourers eased marginally to 6.5 per cent and 6.52 per cent in April compared to 7.01 and 6.94 per cent, respectively, in March this year. Traders took a note of former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg’s statement that withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes is a 'non-event' and will have zero impact on the economy and monetary policy. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green after US President Joe Biden said relations with China are expected to improve “very shortly,” and as the market awaited possible progress in US debt-limit talks.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61900.49, up by 170.81 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 61579.78 and 61989.32. 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 0.38%, while Small cap index was up by 0.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.85%, IT up by 1.04%, Healthcare up by 1.04%, Power up by 0.88% and TECK up by 0.76%, while Telecom down by 0.30%, Bankex down by 0.20% and Metal down by 0.18% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 1.53%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1.43%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.41%, Sun Pharma up by 1.36% and Infosys up by 1.34%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.81%, Tata Motors down by 0.79%, Indusind Bank down by 0.56%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.53% and Nestle down by 0.51% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the defence ministry has said that for the first time, the value of India's defence production has crossed Rs 1 lakh crore mark in the financial year 2022-23. The value of total defence production in the country in 2021-22 was over Rs 95,000 crore. In the last few years, the government has taken a series of measures to promote the domestic defence industry. The value currently stands at Rs 1,06,800 crore and it will go further up once the data is received from the remaining private defence industries.

The ministry said the value of defence production in 2022-23 is a rise of more than 12 per cent over the figure in 2021-22 when it was Rs 95,000 crore. The government is continuously working with defence industries and their associations to remove the challenges faced by them and promote defence production in the country. It said a number of policy reforms have been taken to achieve the objective of ease of doing business, including the integration of MSMEs and start-ups into the supply chain.

The ministry said defence industries, including the MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) and start-ups, have been coming forward in design, development and manufacturing of military hardware. There is almost a 200 per cent increase in the number of defence licenses issued to the industries in the last seven-eight years by the government. These measures have given a boost to the defence industrial manufacturing ecosystem in the country and generated tremendous employment opportunities.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18272.90, up by 69.50 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 18178.85 and 18294.95. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 7.79%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 5.86%, Divi's Lab up by 2.57%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.61% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.52%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 0.72%, Axis Bank down by 0.68%, Eicher Motors down by 0.64%, Hindalco down by 0.64% and UPL down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Hang Seng advanced 245.73 points or 1.26% to 19,696.30, Shanghai Composite strengthened 4.38 points or 0.13% to 3,287.92, KOSPI increased 18.64 points or 0.73% to 2,556.43, Jakarta Composite gained 26.48 points or 0.39% to 6,727.04, Straits Times rose 3.08 points or 0.1% to 3,205.67 and Nikkei 225 surged 240.77 points or 0.78% to 31,049.12.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted lost 20.9 points or 0.13% to 16,154.02.