Local bourses trade slightly higher in early deals

Domestic equity indices made flat-to-positive start on Friday, after showing sudden fall in last session, as market participants took some solace with broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. But, markets failed to hold the momentum and soon turned volatile as traders are struggling for direction ahead of macro-economic data -- industrial production and retail inflation -- to be release on June 12. At this point of trade, local bourses are trading tad higher. Foreign fund inflows lend some support to the domestic sentiments. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) net purchased Indian shares worth Rs 212.40 crore on June 08, according to provisional exchange data. Global cues remained supportive with most of the Asian markets are trading higher, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, on easing concerns over the outlook for interest rates after report showing initial jobless claims in the U.S. increased by much more than expected last week. The data seems to have added to optimism that the US Fed will pause its interest rate hikes. 

Back home, stocks related to railways were in focus with report that the Ministry of Railways has reported an earning of Rs 14642 crore from freight loading in May 2023, a four per cent increase compared to last year at Rs 14,084 crore. In stock specific development, Aether Industries traded higher as it inked a license agreement with Saudi Aramco Technologies Company for the commercialisation of the sustainable Converge polyols technology.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62896.35, up by 47.71 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 62760.41 and 62992.16. There were 17 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.34%, while Small cap index was up by 0.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 0.78%, Consumer Durables up by 0.66%, Realty up by 0.49%, Healthcare up by 0.42% and Capital Goods up by 0.40%, while Metal down by 0.39%, TECK down by 0.21%, IT down by 0.17%, PSU down by 0.16% and Oil & Gas down by 0.11% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 1.65%, Titan Company up by 1.26%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.96%, Axis Bank up by 0.95% and Asian Paints up by 0.81%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.08%, Infosys down by 0.81%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.63%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.59% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.58% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, talking about India’s capability of exports, Additional Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) S C Aggarwal said a robust and easy trade finance ecosystem is important for India to achieve the $2 trillion exports target by 2030. He added that easy availability of affordable trade finance helps promote export competitiveness.

He also said that traders and the government have to work on issues like obtaining easy finance both for domestic and cross-border trade. India has set an ambitious target to take its total goods and services exports to $2 trillion by 2030. 

According to the commerce ministry’s data, exports of goods and services in 2022-23 rose 14.68 per cent to $775.87 billion as against $676.53 billion in 2021-22. Aggarwal suggested the industry to focus on how to make it easier to get the finance and ways to strengthen this ecosystem.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18654.75, up by 20.20 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 18609.65 and 18676.65. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Britannia Industries up by 1.81%, Indusind Bank up by 1.70%, Titan Company up by 1.21%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.08% and Axis Bank up by 0.98%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.15%, Tata Steel down by 1.12%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.03%, Infosys down by 0.67% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.67% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 606.32 points or 1.88% to 32,247.59, Taiwan Weighted rose 145.11 points or 0.86% to 16,878.80, Hang Seng advanced 46.4 points or 0.24% to 19,345.58, KOSPI increased 25.12 points or 0.95% to 2,635.97, Shanghai Composite strengthened 0.82 points or 0.03% to 3,214.41 and Straits Times was up by 0.55 points or 0.02% to 3,187.16, while Jakarta Composite was down by 4.61 points or 0.07% to 6,661.72.