Bourses maintain gains in late afternoon session

The Indian equity benchmarks maintained their gains in late afternoon session tracking positive cues from European markets. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were trading with gains of around one percent. Traders took support as Icra Ratings in report stated that India’s economic growth will accelerate to 8.5 per cent in the April-June period of the current fiscal from the 6.1 per cent growth rate witnessed in the preceding January-March quarter. The rating agency attributed the faster growth to a supportive base and also a recovery in the services sector. On the global front, all Asian markets were trading higher amid US Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium due later this week for more clues about the economy and interest-rate outlook. Bargain hunting also continued after heavy selling in the previous week. European markets were trading higher driven by technology stocks as chipmakers tracked an overnight Wall Street rally ahead of Nvidia's earnings, while Ubisoft jumped after Activision sold its non-European streaming rights to the French company.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65271.95, up by 55.86 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 65165.45 and 65362.91. There were 20 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.90%, while Small cap index was up by 0.85%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.01%, Utilities up by 1.25%, Power up by 1.06%, Industrials up by 1.03% and Capital Goods was up by 1.03%, while IT down by 0.16% and TECK was down by 0.06% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 1.41%, NTPC up by 1.12%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.82%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.74% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.66%. On the flip side, Jio Financial down by 4.99%, TCS down by 0.83%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.42%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.31% and Infosys down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India has participated in the 20th ASEAN-India Economic Ministers’ meeting held on August 21, 2023 in Semarang, Indonesia. The Economic Ministers or their representatives from all the 10 ASEAN countries viz. Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam participated in the meeting. Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste also joined the Meeting as an observer.

The Ministers reviewed the bilateral trade and investment relations between India and ASEAN and underscored their commitment to strengthen and enhance the economic partnership between India and ASEAN to ensure that the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership delivers meaningful benefits for both sides, particularly in the post-pandemic era. India and ASEAN registered a bilateral trade of $131.5 billion in 2022-23. The trade with ASEAN accounted for 11.3% of India’s global trade in 2022-23.

The Ministers also interacted with the ASEAN-India Business Council (AIBC) and took note of the activities undertaken by AIBC in 2023, including the 5th ASEAN-India Business Summit held on March 6, 2023 in Kuala Lumpur. The Ministers noted the Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) flagged by the businesses and appreciated the growing exchanges between the stakeholders from both sides.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19413.95, up by 20.35 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 19381.45 and 19443.50. There were 33 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 2.30%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 1.98%, ITC up by 1.44%, NTPC up by 1.07% and SBI Life up by 1.04%. On the flip side, Jio Financial down by 5.00%, BPCL down by 0.91%, Cipla down by 0.91%, TCS down by 0.86% and Eicher Motors down by 0.65% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher; Hang Seng advanced 167.72 points or 0.94% to 17,791.01, Nikkei 225 surged 291.07 points or 0.91% to 31,856.71, Shanghai Composite strengthened 27.35 points or 0.88% to 3,120.33, Jakarta Composite gained 52.81 points or 0.77% to 6,918.84, Taiwan Weighted added 56.12 points or 0.34% to 16,437.61, KOSPI increased 6.94 points or 0.28% to 2,515.74 and Straits Times was up by 4.38 points or 0.14% to 3,158.41.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 26.36 points or 0.36% to 7,284.18, France’s CAC rose 77.86 points or 1.08% to 7,275.92 and Germany’s DAX was up by 147.51 points or 0.95% to 15,750.79.