Benchmarks continue to trade in green in late morning deals

Domestic equity indices continued to trade in green in late morning deals despite muted cues from global markets. Traders were getting encouragement with a private report stating that Consumer price inflation in India likely cooled to a 20-month low in May as food price rises slowed further, drawing closer to the Reserve Bank of India's medium-term target of 4%. Food inflation, which accounts for nearly half of the consumer price index (CPI) basket, eased to 3.84% in April and was expected to have declined further last month. Some support also came in after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent. Inflation projection was lowered to 5.1 per cent in FY24 from 5.2 per cent.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red following mostly negative cues from US markets overnight. Back home, traders were seen pilling up position in Utilities, Power, Metal, PSU and Capital Goods, while selling was witnessed in Realty, Auto, IT, FMCG and Healthcare. In the stock specific development, Zen Technologies rose after the company has won order worth of Rs 202 from the Ministry of Defence.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 63307.12, up by 164.16 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 63111.63 and 63321.40. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.16%, while Small cap index up by 0.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.86%, Power up by 1.57%, Metal up by 1.00%, PSU up by 0.60% and Capital Goods up by 0.50%, while Realty down by 0.94%, Auto down by 0.50%, IT down by 0.28%, FMCG down by 0.27% and Healthcare down by 0.26% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 3.44%, Power Grid up by 2.11%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.07%, HDFC Bank up by 0.96% and ICICI Bank up by 0.96%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.73%, Sun Pharma down by 1.47%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.01%, Nestle down by 0.87% and Axis Bank down by 0.81% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the apex industry body Finance & Industry Development Council (FIDC) in its latest data has showed that pulled down by a demand deceleration from urban and semi-urban customers and a contraction in personal and home loans, Non-bank financial companies (NBFCs) loan book grew just about 2 per cent in Q4 FY23 to Rs 4,46,132 crore from Rs 4,38,345 crore a year ago when it soared 28 per cent year-on-year.  However, for the full year, the NBFC system-wide lending jumped a healthy 23.9 per cent to Rs 16,93,286 crore from Rs 12,87,484 crore. In absolute terms, incremental lending rose by 4,05,802 crore. The industry's rural book rose to Rs 1,20,000 crore in Q4 from Rs 1,09,000 crore in Q1 of FY23, semi-urban rose from 47,000 crore in Q1 to Rs 50,000 crore in Q4, and the urban book rose to Rs 2,78,000 crore from Rs 2,74,000 crore.

According to the data, of the total loan disbursed in the March 2023 quarter, rural lending rose 10 per cent to Rs 1,19,549 crore. As against this, lending to urban customers declined by 1 per cent to Rs 2,78,050 crore in the reporting quarter, while semi-urban customers borrowed sharply lower at Rs 50,427 crore, which was a 5 per cent degrowth. On the other hand, vehicle loans saw strong demand with auto (personal) growing 34 per cent to Rs 21,889 crore; CVs up 20 per cent at Rs 30,662 crore; two-wheelers up 35 per cent to Rs 12,188 crore; construction equipment grew 36 per cent to Rs 4,552 crore; and equipment finance grew 24 per cent to Rs 1,673 crore, reflecting signs of capex improvement.

It further stated that consumer loans were relatively flat growing just 4 per cent to Rs 21,605 crore, while gold loans, loans against property and unsecured business loans grew well, with the former clipping at 24 per cent to Rs 50,959 crore and the latter fared a tad better clipping at 29 per cent to Rs 45,284.5 crore. The biggest drag was the unsecured personal loan, which de-grew by a steep 15 per cent to Rs 51,925 crore while home loans, which is the biggest segment, de-grew by a marginal 1 per cent to Rs 87,102 crore. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18764.50, up by 38.10 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 18723.40 and 18777.90. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were JSW Steel up by 3.97%, NTPC up by 3.52%, Power Grid up by 2.13%, ONGC up by 1.66% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.05%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.79%, BPCL down by 1.70%, Eicher Motors down by 1.58%, Apollo Hospital down by 1.54% and Sun Pharma down by 1.44% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted lost 188.79 points or 1.12% to 16,733.69, Straits Times fell 6.2 points or 0.19% to 3,173.38, Nikkei 225 slipped 272.47 points or 0.85% to 31,641.27 and KOSPI dropped 8.57 points or 0.33% to 2,607.03. However, Hang Seng advanced 19.22 points or 0.1% to 19,271.22, Shanghai Composite strengthened 18.13 points or 0.57% to 3,215.89 and Jakarta Composite gained 0.05 points or 0% to 6,619.81.