Markets trade with traction in early deals; NTPC leads gainers

Indian equity benchmarks made optimistic start on Friday, in an attempt to recover from the previous selloff, tracking gains in Asian counterparts. Soon, markets gained traction and are trading in fine-fettle with notable gains of over 0.80% each in early deals. Overnight fall in crude oil prices amid easing Middle East fears supported domestic sentiments. Israel has heeded to US' request of delaying its Gaza invasion to make time to negotiate hostage releases and keep humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza. Traders took some encouragement as a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) showed that replacing natural gas consumption with biogas and biomethane incrementally to 20 per cent by 2030 can help India cut liquefied natural gas import bills by $29 billion between financial years 2025 and 2030. 

On the global front, most of the Asian markets are trading higher, despite overnight losses on Wall Street, as traders react to easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East after Israel heeded to US' request to delay its Gaza invasion. Back home, the Ministry of Finance said the span of nine years, that is Assessment Year (AY) 2013-2014 and 2021-2022, saw an increase of 90 per cent in filing of Income Tax Returns (ITR) by individual tax payers. In stock specific development, Punjab National Bank traded higher after its net profit for Q2FY24 jumped 327.14 per cent YoY to Rs 1,756 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 63659.00, up by 510.85 points or 0.81% after trading in a range of 63393.37 and 63670.94. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index surged 1.84%, while Small cap index was up by 1.86%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 2.01%, PSU up by 1.95%, Power up by 1.93%, Realty up by 1.72% and Industrials up by 1.60%, while there was no loser on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.35%, SBI up by 1.57%, Infosys up by 1.48%, Reliance Industries up by 1.46% and Wipro up by 1.10%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 0.59%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.29% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.02% were the few losers.

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over India’s economic growth, India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant has said that the country is poised to become a $5 trillion economy. He added that the government has pushed the limit on infrastructure.

He further said that the challenge for the country will be to grow at 8-9 per cent for the next three decades. He highlighted that India's economy can't grow at higher rates without the support of the private sector. Pointing out that presently the size of China's economy is five times of India, Kant said ‘to catch up with China, we will have to grow at 10 per cent’.

Asserting that the quality of Indian airports is better than those in Europe, he said ‘our domestic airlines are also much better than international airlines’. Emphasising on the need to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to bring sustainable growth, he said India's growth story will remain intact. He said ‘You can't make technology leapfrog without using AI’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19015.15, up by 157.90 points or 0.84% after trading in a range of 18926.65 and 19017.00. There were 48 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 2.22%, Apollo Hospital up by 1.82%, SBI up by 1.59%, Coal India up by 1.56% and Adani Enterprises up by 1.56%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 0.48% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.45% were the only losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 331.4 points or 1.08% to 30,933.18, Hang Seng jumped 168.78 points or 0.99% to 17,213.39, Taiwan Weighted rose 77.86 points or 0.48% to 16,151.60, Jakarta Composite advanced 46.20 points or 0.69% to 6,760.72 and Shanghai Composite was up by 10.49 points or 0.35% to 2,998.79. On the other hand, Straits Times fell 7.31 points or 0.24% to 3,064.00 and KOSPI was down by 2.37 points or 0.1% to 2,296.71.