Post Session: Quick Review

Indian share markets failed to maintain early gains till the end and ended near day’s low levels as investors preferred to sell their riskier assets. However, markets ended with limited losses amid weekly F&O expiry. Initially, soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 offered some support to the markets. Successful soft landing on the lunar surface, making the country the first one to land on the south polar region (dark side) of the Moon. Buying were witnessed in IT and banking stocks, while selling were seen in Metal stocks. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index ended in green. 

Indices made optimistic start and extended their gains to trade higher following broadly positive cues from global peers. Some support came after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said that vegetable rates may ease from September, led by tomato prices, which have started showing signs of correction on the back of increased supply. Foreign fund inflows also boosted investors sentiments. Traders took a note of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that India is seen as a combination of openness, opportunities and options as the world sees optimism and confidence in the Indian economy. The prime minister said that during the last nine years, India has become the fifth largest global economy and it has increased its competitiveness and enhanced transparency. However, in afternoon session, markets slipped into red terrain amid profit booking. Markets unable to recover from losses and settled trade in red terrian. 

On the global front, European markets were trading higher as bond yields retreated globally amid hopes that interest rates may have peaked. Blockbuster earnings and bullish outlook from Nvidia also offered some support as investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's upcoming Jackson Hole symposium. Asian markets ended mostly in green after Singapore's consumer price inflation moderated further in July to the lowest level in more than one and-a-half years, primarily due to lower charges for private transport. Back home, commerce minister Piyush Goyal has said India is hopeful that trade and investment ministers from the world’s 20 biggest economies set to meet in Jaipur will be able to strike a consensus on key areas of trade and investment, although differences persist over the Ukraine war.

The BSE Sensex ended at 65,252.34, down by 180.96 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 65,181.94 and 65,913.77. There were 11 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.11%, while Small cap index was up by 0.21%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.63%, TECK up by 0.48%, Telecom up by 0.44%, FMCG up by 0.28% and Realty was up by 0.21%, while Healthcare down by 0.72%, Energy down by 0.69%, Metal down by 0.45%, Consumer Durables down by 0.39% and Auto was down by 0.35% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 1.68%, Indusind Bank up by 1.28%, Infosys up by 1.19%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.54% and ICICI Bank up by 0.41%. On the flip side, JIO Financial down by 4.99%, Reliance Industries down by 1.76%, Power Grid down by 1.32%, JSW Steel down by 1.19% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.10% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, expressing some cautiousness over the India’s inflation situation, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has said the frequent food price spikes pose a risk to anchoring of inflation expectations, which has been underway since September 2022, and called for timely supply side measures to limit such shocks. He added that vegetable price shocks are short term in nature and the monetary policy can wait for the ‘dissipation’ of the first-round effects of the current spate of shocks. However, he said the RBI will be on guard to ensure that second order effects in the form of generalisation and persistence are not allowed to take hold.

He noted ‘the role of continued and timely supply side interventions assumes criticality in limiting the severity and duration of such shocks’. He also reiterated that the RBI will remain firmly focused on aligning inflation to the target of 4 per cent and the interest rates are likely to stay elevated in the country for long. He said the spike in vegetable prices in July is starting to see a correction, led by tomato prices, pointing out that new arrivals are already softening prices. He also welcomed the ‘proactive supply management’ in the case of onions. He expects an appreciable slowdown in vegetable inflation from September.

On the macroeconomic front, Das said India's financial sector continues to be resilient and healthy but underlined that there is no room to be complacent. Forex reserves of over $600 billion present a strong umbrella against any event like that of a cyclical capital outflows. He added it was this ‘umbrella’ which led to an orderly depreciation of the rupee and ensured that the domestic currency was less impacted when compared to global peers after the start of the Ukraine invasion by Russia.

On the manufacturing front, he said the share of it has remained stagnant at about 18 per cent of GDP and India has the potential to capitalise on emerging areas such as aerospace and defence, low-carbon technologies, electric vehicles and semiconductors. He said improving the labour force participation rate, especially of women, is critical to realise the full potential on the demographics front, and added that there is a need to invest in education, skill development, and healthcare. The time is now ripe for targeted development of startups in high-tech domains such as quantum computing, small modular reactors, AI-based defence equipment, biotechnology, rare earths extraction, battery technology, oceanography and space exploration.

The CNX Nifty ended at 19,386.70, down by 57.30 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 19,369.00 and 19,584.45. There were 17 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 1.87%, Asian Paints up by 1.79%, Indusind Bank up by 1.72%, Infosys up by 1.11% and Britannia up by 0.67%. On the flip side, JIO Financial down by 4.99%, Reliance Industries down by 1.68%, ONGC down by 1.37%, Power Grid down by 1.32% and JSW Steel down by 1.25% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 20.8 points or 0.28% to 7,341.33, France’s CAC rose 17.65 points or 0.24% to 7,264.27 and Germany’s DAX was up by 32.15 points or 0.2% to 15,760.56.

Asian markets settled mostly higher on Thursday, despite weak August PMIs from major economies. Wall Street gains overnight ahead to the Federal Reserve's upcoming Jackson Hole symposium and blockbuster quarterly earnings from major chipmaker Nvidia Corp added support to market sentiments. Seoul shares gained after the Bank of Korea held interest rates steady as expected for a fourth straight month. Moreover, Japanese and Hong Kong shares climbed followed by gains in the technology sector.