Bourses trade flat in late afternoon session

In volatile trading session, Indian markets traded flat in late afternoon session. Weakness in select Banking and Metal shares dragged key gauges lower, while buying in IT stocks helped markets to trade near neutral lines. Traders ignored newly elected President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) R Dinesh’s statement that India's economy is expected to grow in the range of 6.5-6.7 per cent in the current financial year supported by strong domestic drivers and robust capex momentum of the government. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed amid fears of a U.S. debt default eased, and a private survey showed China's factory activity unexpectedly swung to growth in May from decline. European markets were trading higher as investors awaited regional inflation data for clues on how much longer the European Central Bank will hike interest rates, with hopes that the U.S. will avoid a debt default aiding the sentiment.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62576.82, down by 45.42 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 62526.18 and 62762.41. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.35%, while Small cap index was up by 0.72%.The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.17%, Healthcare up by 0.86%, Auto up by 0.76%, IT up by 0.56% and Utilities was up by 0.55%, while Metal down by 0.58%, Energy down by 0.43%, Bankex down by 0.35%, TECK down by 0.19% and Telecom was down by 0.04% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.42%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.36%, Asian Paints up by 1.23%, Sun Pharma up by 1.17% and Axis Bank up by 1.13%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.63%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.98%, ITC down by 0.99%, ICICI Bank down by 0.45% and Power Grid down by 0.36% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, coming in line with the government's revised budget estimate, the Centre's fiscal deficit narrowed to 6.4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23) from 6.71 per cent in FY22. In the Union Budget, the government aimed to further bring down the fiscal deficit -- a key indicator of borrowing -- during the current financial year 2023-24 to 5.9 per cent of the GDP. Unveiling the revenue-expenditure data of the Union government for 2022-23, the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) said the fiscal deficit in absolute terms was Rs 17,33,131 crore (provisional), marginally down from the amount projected in the Revised Estimates (RE) in the Budget.

CGA said the government received Rs 24.56 lakh crore (101 per cent of corresponding RE 2022-23 of total receipts) during 2022-23. It comprised Rs 20.97 lakh crore tax revenue (Net to Centre), Rs 2.86 lakh crore of non-tax revenue and Rs 72,187 crore of non-debt capital receipts. Non-debt capital receipts consist of the recovery of loans and miscellaneous capital receipts. About Rs 9.48 lakh crore has been transferred to state governments as devolution of taxes by the central government, which is Rs 50,015 crore higher than the previous year (2021-22).

The data further revealed that the Centre's total expenditure was Rs 41.89 crore (100 per cent of corresponding RE 2022-23), out of which Rs 34.52 lakh crore was on the revenue account and Rs 7.36 lakh crore on the capital account. Out of the total revenue expenditure, Rs 9.28 lakh crore was on account of interest payments and Rs 5.31 lakh crore towards major subsidies. 

As per CGA, the revenue deficit for the fiscal ending March 2023 was 3.9 per cent of GDP while the effective revenue deficit worked out to be 2.8 per cent of GDP. Meanwhile, the fiscal deficit in the first month of the current fiscal was 7.5 per cent of the Budget Estimate, up from 4.5 per cent recorded in April 2022. In absolute terms, the deficit was Rs 1.33 lakh crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18527.25, down by 7.15 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 18514.40 and 18580.30. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Apollo Hospital up by 4.19%, Divi's Lab up by 2.54%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.95%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.44% and Tata Motors up by 1.41%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 4.62%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 3.90%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.75%, SBI Life down by 2.10% and HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.35% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Taiwan Weighted lost 66.31 points or 0.4% to 16,512.65, Hang Seng declined 17.36 points or 0.1% to 18,216.91 and KOSPI was down by 7.95 points or 0.31% to 2,569.17. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite strengthened 0.07 points or 0% to 3,204.63, Straits Times rose 2.25 points or 0.07% to 3,161.05 and Nikkei 225 was up by 260.13 points or 0.84% to 31,148.01.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 49.18 points or 0.66% to 7,495.32, France’s CAC rose 68.67 points or 0.96% to 7,167.37 and Germany’s DAX was up by 177.8 points or 1.12% to 15,841.82.