Bourses continue upward rally in late afternoon session

The Indian benchmarks continued their upward rally in late afternoon session, with the Sensex and Nifty gaining more than 350 and 120 points, respectively. Among heavy-weights Larsen & Toubro and Coal India exhibited a smart performance. Traders continued to take support with Chairman, CII national committee on EXIM, Sanjay Budhia’s statement that negotiating trade pacts with certain G20 countries and diversifying exports to regions like Brazil and Mexico could help India boost outbound shipments and manufacturing in the years to come. On the global front, all Asian markets were trading lower after China reported weak trade figures for August, adding to worries about slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy. European markets were trading mostly in red on track for their longest losing streak in more than five years, weighed down by twin concerns of a slowing European economy and elevated US interest rates.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 66,239.22, up by 358.70 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 65672.34 and 66133.12. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.74%, while Small cap index was up by 0.46%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.18%, Industrials up by 1.53%, PSU up by 1.51%, Utilities up by 1.42% and Realty was up by 1.37%, while FMCG down by 0.35% and Healthcare was down by 0.11% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.81%, NTPC up by 1.75%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.72%, HCL Tech up by 1.32% and Power Grid up by 1.24%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.12%, Infosys down by 0.86%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.83%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.69% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.62% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Government think tank Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand has said that India's agro-chemical industry has the potential to grow more than the current nine per cent notwithstanding the competition from China. He also observed that many Western countries are shifting from agrochemicals to biopesticides and the Indian industry needs to pay attention to this aspect. He urged the Agro Chem Federation of India (ACFI) to come out with a document on ease of doing business in agrochemicals.

Chand has stated that the agrochemical industry has achieved a miracle growth of 9% and much of this growth rate has happened during the Covid-19 pandemic years when the production activities were seriously disrupted. Despite economic and production disruptions, the domestic agrochemical industry had shown an impressive growth between 2017-18 and 2022-23. That apart, India's exports have crossed $5 billion and even surpassed China according to different data sources.

The Niti Aayog member further stated, if India can achieve a nine per cent growth rate in the absence of favourable China factor, the China competition is not as hard it was in the past. He said ‘we can easily raise this growth rate from nine per cent to anything in the realm of reality’. On biopesticides, he said the industry needs to ponder why many Western countries are shifting from agrochemicals to biopesticides. He added that the agrochemical industry needs to focus on innovation to minimize pollution and also come out with a document on ease of doing business with compliances.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19,731.40, up by 120.35 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 19550.05 and 19669.55. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 6.51%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.81%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.69%, NTPC up by 1.40% and SBI Life up by 1.38%. On the flip side, Tata Consumer down by 2.38%, Infosys down by 0.93%, Britannia down by 0.92%, Sun Pharma down by 0.91% and Divi's Lab down by 0.91% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 249.94 points or 0.76% to 32,991.08, Hang Seng declined 247.91 points or 1.36% to 18,202.07, Taiwan Weighted lost 119.02 points or 0.72% to 16,619.14, Jakarta Composite plunged 54.41 points or 0.78% to 6,941.54, Shanghai Composite weakened 35.73 points or 1.14% to 3,122.35, KOSPI dropped 15.08 points or 0.59% to 2,548.26 and Straits Times was down by 0.63 points or 0.02% to 3,222.25.

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 2.82 points or 0.04% to 7,423.32, France’s CAC rose 11.33 points or 0.16% to 7,205.42 and Germany’s DAX was down by 22.86 points or 0.15% to 15,718.51.