Indices trade higher in early deals after Indian economy grows 7.6% in Q2

Indian equity markets have made a positive start on Friday amid broad-based buying. Markets are trading higher with gains of around half a percent in early deals as the Indian economy grew 7.6 per cent during the July-September quarter of the current financial year 2023-24, remaining the fastest-growing major economy. India’s GDP growth for the April-June quarter grew 7.8 per cent. Further, support also came in as Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said India’s economic growth momentum will continue in the October-December quarter and the economy is poised to comfortably clock a 6.5 per cent growth rate for the full fiscal underpinned by investment and consumer momentum. Besides, foreign fund inflows also supported sentiments. Provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed that foreign institutional investors net bought shares worth Rs 8,147.85 crore on November 30.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red on Friday even as Wall Street mostly saw positive trend. Meanwhile, traders reacted to a raft of mixed domestic economic data from the region, particularly manufacturing activity. The US markets ended mostly higher on Thursday with Dow Jones Industrial Average settling higher around one and half percent. Back home, on the BSE sectoral front, traders were seen pilling up position Realty, PSU, Capital Goods, Utilities and Industrials, while selling was witnessed only in Consumer Durables and IT. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 67301.97, up by 313.53 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 67149.07 and 67311.66. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.62%, while Small cap index up by 0.74%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.91%, PSU up by 1.44%, Capital Goods up by 1.43%, Utilities up by 1.28% and Industrials up by 1.09%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.06% and IT down by 0.05% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 2.33%, NTPC up by 1.95%, Asian Paints up by 1.81%, Indusind Bank up by 1.16% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.11%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 0.77%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.44%, HCL Tech. down by 0.42%, Infosys down by 0.36% and Titan down by 0.30% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran has said India's economic growth momentum will continue in the October-December quarter of current financial year (Q3FY24) and the economy is poised to comfortably clock a 6.5 per cent growth rate for the full fiscal (FY24) underpinned by investment and consumer momentum. He said India is underestimating its GDP growth while forecasting a 6.5 per cent expansion for the full fiscal as is evident from the tax buoyancy that the country is witnessing on the back of high tax revenue collection due to strong corporate and bank balance sheet.

He stated ‘When you have a tax buoyancy which is as high as 1.9 or close to 2, which is historically unprecedented, then it is quite possible that we are not measuring the economy's underlying momentum… We will keep the GDP growth estimate for the full fiscal at 6.5 per cent but we are more comfortable (with the projection) than before. We need to work out the impact of second quarter numbers on full fiscal. The momentum of economic growth will continue in the third quarter as well.’

Talking about the second quarter (July-September) GDP growth numbers which came in as a surprise at 7.6 per cent, he said the Indian economy is maintaining a steady momentum since recovery from Covid and remained the fastest growing major economy in the July-September quarter as well.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 20226.25, up by 93.10 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 20183.70 and 20232.10. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 2.47%, NTPC up by 2.01%, Asian Paints up by 1.86%, ONGC up by 1.51% and Indusind Bank up by 1.14%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 0.73%, SBI Life down by 0.56%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.47%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.46% and HCL down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 70.86 points or 0.42% to 16,972.02, Nikkei 225 slipped 18.24 points or 0.05% to 33,468.65, Taiwan Weighted lost 4.06 points or 0.02% to 17,429.79, KOSPI dropped 27.25 points or 1.07% to 2,508.04, Shanghai Composite weakened 9.83 points or 0.32% to 3,019.84 and Jakarta Composite plunged 32.77 points or 0.46% to 7,047.97. However, Straits Times rose 15.15 points or 0.49% to 3,088.14.