Benchmarks add some gains in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks added some gains in morning deals, led by gains in Realty, TECK and IT stocks. Sentiments remained positive as data released by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) showing that the unemployment rate in India fell to 7.7 per cent in May due to a decline in the labour participation at 441.9 million. Unemployment rate in India among people aged 15 years and above fell to 7.7 per cent in May 2023, from 8.5 per cent in the previous month. Some support also came as State Bank of India (SBI) in its ‘Ecowrap’ research report stating that domestic Gross domestic product (GDP) growth is now on firm footing with urban demand showing good traction, while the lagging rural demand is a cause of concern. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, as traders are cautiously optimistic ahead of the monetary policy meetings of the US Fed, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan later in the week.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62744.12, up by 118.49 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 62615.20 and 62783.65. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.44%, while Small cap index was up by 0.63%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.20%, TECK up by 1.13%, IT up by 1.12%, Telecom up by 1.08% and Metal up by 0.64%, while Capital Goods down by 0.19%, Consumer Durables down by 0.16% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Technologies up by 1.73%, Infosys up by 1.45%, NTPC up by 1.23%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.10% and Nestle up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.01%, Titan Company down by 1.00%, Asian Paints down by 0.60%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.42% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.37% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran has said that the government is on the same page with the Reserve Bank of India on the GDP growth forecast for the current financial year which is 6.5 per cent. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced at the end of the monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting on Thursday that the GDP growth forecast for 2023-24 has been pegged at 6.5 per cent, a tad higher than the April forecast of 6.4 per cent.

Nageswaran mentioned ‘Both the ministry of finance and the RBI are on the same page with the growth forecast for the current fiscal which is 6.5 per cent with risks evenly balanced. The domestic economic growth momentum is strong enough to overcome external risk factors.’ He stated ‘We also benefit from lower oil prices and overall domestic macroeconomic stability.’ 
Further, he said that during the last financial year, real GDP growth was 7.2 per cent, which was lower than the 9.1 per cent registered in the previous fiscal. However, he said ‘I feel that the growth for the last fiscal will be much higher than 7.2 per cent. The CEA to the government said that India was the fastest growing among major economies with all high-frequency parameters for April signalling a good start during the first quarter of the current fiscal.  

Besides, he stated with exports of goods and services as a percentage of GDP pegged at 23.5 per cent during the last financial year, the highest since 2015, private consumption and gross capital formation had increased in the last financial year after the pandemic. Private consumption has been mainly driven by urban consumption, contributed largely by the release of pent-up demand.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18605.60, up by 42.20 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 18559.75 and 18633.60. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Technologies up by 1.87%, Infosys up by 1.56%, SBI Life Insurance up by 1.46%, BPCL up by 1.31% and HDFC Life Insurance up by 1.28%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 0.96%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.93%, Asian Paints down by 0.60%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.54% and Divi's Lab down by 0.49% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Jakarta Composite plunged 3.9 points or 0.06% to 6,690.12, Straits Times rose 1.49 points or 0.05% to 3,188.46, Nikkei 225 surged 129.83 points or 0.4% to 32,395.00 and Taiwan Weighted added 59.37 points or 0.35% to 16,945.77.

On the flip side, Hang Seng declined 124.85 points or 0.65% to 19,265.10, Shanghai Composite weakened 11.67 points or 0.36% to 3,219.74 and KOSPI dropped 11.87 points or 0.45% to 2,629.29.