Bourses continue to trade in fine fettle in late afternoon session

The Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in fine fettle in late afternoon session on account of buying in front line counters. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index also remained in green. Investors braced for US Fed's rate decision later tonight. Traders continued to take support, as International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised the FY24 economic growth forecast for India by 20 basis points to 6.1 per cent, citing the country’s stronger-than-expected growth momentum in the March quarter of FY23. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as investors awaited the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates later in the day and sought clarity on China’s economic stimulus package. European markets were trading lower amid a slew of earnings and ahead of the latest monetary policy update from the U.S. Federal Reserve. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 66872.71, up by 517.00 points or 0.78% after trading in a range of 66431.34 and 66897.27. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.51%, while Small cap index was up by 0.42%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.02%, Capital Goods up by 1.93%, Industrials up by 1.29%, FMCG up by 1.11% and Realty was up by 0.94%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.15% was the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.83%, ITC up by 2.08%, Reliance Industries up by 1.74%, Tata Motors up by 1.25% and Sun Pharma up by 1.06%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.23%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.12%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.60%, Titan Company down by 0.58% and Asian Paints down by 0.39% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, minister of Civil Aviation and Steel Jyotiraditya M Scindia has said that the country's civil aviation sector has been democratised in the last nine years. Along with the number of airports, there has been a vast expansion in the number of aircraft and the market size. And in this expansion of big metro airports and large airlines, are as important as small town airports, small airlines and helicopters.

At Heli Summit 2023, the minister launched UDAN 5.2 and HeliSewa-App. UDAN 5.2 has been launched for further enhancing the connectivity to remote and regional areas of the country and achieving last-mile connectivity through small aircraft. 

The HeliSewa Portal is an initiative of the Ministry of Civil Aviation under Digital India to create a common platform to create an ecosystem between the helicopter operators and the district authorities.  The mobile application will make it more convenient to use in terms of user experience, loading content, and usability of functions.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19822.85, up by 142.25 points or 0.72% after trading in a range of 19716.70 and 19825.60. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.87%, ITC up by 2.03%, Britannia up by 1.94%, Reliance Industries up by 1.75% and UPL up by 1.27%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.22%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.18%, SBI Life down by 0.86%, Apollo Hospital down by 0.68% and Divi's Lab down by 0.64% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Hang Seng declined 69.26 points or 0.36% to 19,365.14, KOSPI dropped 44.1 points or 1.7% to 2,592.36, Taiwan Weighted lost 36.34 points or 0.21% to 17,162.55, Nikkei 225 slipped 14.17 points or 0.04% to 32,668.34 and Shanghai Composite was down by 8.49 points or 0.26% to 3,223.03. On the flip side, Straits Times rose 19.04 points or 0.58% to 3,305.20 and Jakarta Composite was up by 29.59 points or 0.43% to 6,947.30.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 17.4 points or 0.23% to 7,674.40, France’s CAC fell 90.5 points or 1.22% to 7,324.95 and Germany’s DAX was down by 72.87 points or 0.45% to 16,138.72.