Bourses trade at day’s high levels in late afternoon session

The Indian benchmarks traded at day’s high levels in late afternoon session amid value buying. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index also traded with healthy gains. Traders took support as Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) chief Sanjay Kumar Agarwal has said that increased monthly GST collections are mainly on account of higher compliance, and the GST Council’s decision to tighten return filing and registration process would help reduce fake ITC claims in evasion prone sectors, including iron and steel. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green as a drop in oil prices and US Treasury yields provided some much-needed respite from speculation the Federal Reserve will push interest rates even higher. European markets were trading higher helped by gains in luxury and technology stocks, as investors focused on a slew of economic data towards the end of a tumultuous quarter.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 66096.93, up by 588.61 points or 0.90% after trading in a range of 65570.38 and 66120.73. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.55%, while Small cap index was up by 0.78%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.04%, Healthcare up by 2.62%, PSU up by 1.94%, Oil & Gas up by 1.66% and Energy was up by 1.59%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 3.62%, Tata Motors up by 2.91%, Sun Pharma up by 2.84%, Tata Steel up by 2.01% and JSW Steel up by 1.89%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 0.20%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.19%, Asian Paints down by 0.19% and HCL Tech down by 0.09% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its ‘September 2023 edition of its Credit Market Tracker’ report has said that the tightness in the liquidity market is likely to ease meaningfully in the coming quarter, as the government spending has increased, followed by a further release of money from the incremental cash reserve ratio funds. However, system liquidity is expected to remain volatile in October 2023 with the rising pressure on current account with seasonal cash outflows.

As per the report, foreign investors pulled out foreign portfolio investments (FPIs) of over $1.2 billion from Indian equity during September 2023. Overall net flows to the debt and equity markets turned negative for the first time since February 2023. This has happened at a time when crude oil prices stayed above $90/bbl, which is likely to exert pressure on India’s current account. The total FPI flows to equity and debt markets reduced substantially in September 2023 to $1.12 billion from $2.2 billion in August 2023.

Ind-Ra noted that as envisaged, the banking system liquidity was negative Rs 1.5 trillion in the middle of September 2023, owing to the quarterly advance tax payment followed by monthly GST payment. Commercial banks have borrowed Rs 2 trillion from the Marginal Standing Facility window to mitigate the frictional tightness in the banking system liquidity. Overall overnight rates inched up 10-15bp yoy in September 2023.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19716.50, up by 192.95 points or 0.99% after trading in a range of 19551.05 and 19721.60. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 5.86%, NTPC up by 3.97%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 3.34%, Divi's Lab up by 2.95% and Tata Motors up by 2.91%. On the flip side, Adani Enterprises down by 2.21%, LTIMindtree down by 1.23%, Asian Paints down by 0.30%, Power Grid down by 0.20% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.12% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng advanced 436.63 points or 2.45% to 17,809.66, Jakarta Composite gained 15.19 points or 0.22% to 6,953.02 and Straits Times rose 16.18 points or 0.5% to 3,223.17. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was down by 14.9 points or 0.05% to 31,857.62.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 51.99 points or 0.68% to 7,653.84, France’s CAC rose 51.33 points or 0.72% to 7,167.57 and Germany’s DAX was up by 104.11 points or 0.68% to 15,427.61.