Markets trade slightly higher in early deals amid volatility

Indian equity benchmarks opened in red on Thursday tacking weakness in global peers. Soon, markets turned volatile and altering between gains and losses amid weekly F&O expiry later in the day. At this point of trade, markets are trading higher with marginal gains as buying in Realty, Energy and Oil & Gas stocks lend some support. Foreign fund inflows also aided domestic sentiments. According to the provisional data available on the NSE, foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,603.15 crore, on 5 July. Some support came in as a report released by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) showed that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows into India rose by 10 per cent to $49 billion in 2022, making it the third largest host country for announced greenfield projects and the second largest for international project finance deals. 

On the global front, most of the Asian markets are trading lower, following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, as traders reacted to the latest US Fed policy meeting minutes that showed most officials would support further interest rate hikes going ahead, despite the pause in June. Disappointing service sector data from China and the Europe weighed as well. Back home, FMCG stocks are in focus as ratings agency CRISIL said the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector in India is likely to witness a revenue growth of 7 to 9 per cent in 2023-24 (FY24), marginally lower than 8-9 per cent in the last two years. In stock specific development, DCB Bank soared after RBI approved Tata Asset Management to acquire 7.5 per cent stake in the bank through the schemes of Tata Mutual Fund.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65482.73, up by 36.69 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 65328.29 and 65530.35. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.36%, while Small cap index was up by 0.58%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.77%, Energy up by 1.22%, Oil & Gas up by 1.13%, Utilities up by 1.09%, Power up by 1.01%, while Metal down by 0.36%, IT down by 0.24%, Auto down by 0.19%, TECK down by 0.17%, FMCG down by 0.16% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Nestle up by 1.77%, Reliance Industries up by 1.77%, Power Grid up by 1.36%, Tata Motors up by 0.48% and Ultratech Cement up by 0.42%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.32%, Tata Steel down by 1.06%, ITC down by 0.90%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.89% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.88% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over India’s growth potential, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant has said that high GDP growth of 8-9 per cent could be driven by focus on manufacturing and urbanisation. He added about 5,500 census towns need to have master planning, and sustainable urbanisation is the way forward, which is a huge opportunity to drive growth in India. He said the bulging middle class holds immense power to drive sustained economic, political and social growth in India. As the number of middle class rises, he said, this will drive demand for quality healthcare, education, housing, consumer goods and many other things. The government increasingly will have to focus on education and health as well as creating job opportunities. 

He said the vision of India becoming a fully developed country by 2047 really implies that the middle class needs to be the key driver of India’s growth story. He said ‘Rise of the Indian middle class is also indicative of economic transformation that the country has undergone over the decades. Since the 1991 reforms, millions have been propelled into the middle class. Technological advancements and sustained growth have also led to a growing and expanding middle class’. 

Talking about challenges Kant said, the southern part of India is growing and urbanising rapidly while the eastern part of India needs to do a lot of catching up because it’s the most populous part of the country. Therefore, there is a need to ensure that there is a regional balance in growth. If India has to achieve sustained growth over a long period of time, he said India has to fire on all cylinders. He added ‘It can’t be that you only depend on services sector that some economists are saying. If you have to grow jobs then you need to fire on all cylinders, you need to grow in services, you need to grow even more in manufacturing, you need to grow your food and you have to enhance your agricultural productivity, and you need to grow rapidly in urbanisation’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19412.75, up by 14.25 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 19373.00 and 19424.15. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Britannia Industries up by 2.78%, Nestle up by 1.90%, Apollo Hospital up by 1.90%, Reliance Industries up by 1.68% and Power Grid up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Eicher Motors down by 2.65%, Indusind Bank down by 1.38%, Tata Steel down by 1.15%, Divi's Lab down by 0.94% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 620.76 points or 1.9% to 32,717.94, Hang Seng declined 575.41 points or 3.1% to 18,534.97, Taiwan Weighted lost 260.69 points or 1.55% to 16,795.74, Straits Times fell 26.35 points or 0.83% to 3,159.03, KOSPI dropped 23.27 points or 0.91% to 2,555.73 and Shanghai Composite was down by 16.98 points or 0.53% to 3,205.97, while Jakarta Composite was up by 3.84 points or 0.06% to 6,722.82.