Indian markets remain under grip of bulls

Indian equity benchmarks remained under a grip of bulls in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty holding strong gains, on the back of heavy buying in almost all sectors excluding Healthcare. Sentiments remained optimistic amid reports that the Reserve Bank is likely to maintain the status quo on the short-term interest rate in its monetary policy review later this week, with inflation staying in comfort zone and economic growth moving at an accelerated pace. 

Adding more comfort among traders, a data with the depositories showed that after turning net sellers in the past two months, FPIs again made a comeback in the Indian stock markets in November and pumped in Rs 9,000 crore amid fall in US treasury bond yields and the resilience of the domestic market. Additionally, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) made a net investment of Rs 14,860 crore in the debt market last month, making it the highest level in six years.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after the monetary base in Japan was up 8.9 percent on year in November, coming in at 671.532 trillion yen. That's down from the downwardly revised 9.0 percent increase in October (originally 9.5 percent). Banknotes in circulation rose 0.1 percent on year, while coins in circulation fell 2.2 percent. There was an 11.1 percent jump in current account balances, including an 11.3 percent spike in reserve balances.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 68481.88, up by 1000.69 points or 1.48% after trading in a range of 68274.47 and 68587.82. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.98%, while Small cap index was up by 1.07%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 3.91%, PSU up by 3.25%, Energy up by 3.04%, Power up by 2.96% and Capital Goods up by 2.90%, while Healthcare down by 0.05% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.92%, SBI up by 3.34%, ICICI Bank up by 3.02%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.81% and Ultratech Cement up by 2.60%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 0.51%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.45%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.18%, TCS down by 0.18% and Nestle down by 0.16% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s power consumption grew nearly 8.5 per cent to 119.64 billion units (BU) in November 2023, showing a surge in electricity demand due to festivities and increased economic activities. In the year ago period, power consumption stood at 110.25 BU, higher than 99.32 billion units recorded in November 2021.

The peak power demand met the highest supply in a day rose to 204.60 GW in November. The peak power supply stood at 187.34 GW in November 2022 and 166.10 GW in November 2021. The power ministry had estimated the country's electricity demand to touch 229 GW during summer. The demand did not reach the projected level in April-July due to unseasonal rain.

However, the peak supply touched a new high of 224.1 GW in June before dropping to 209.03 GW in July. Peak demand touched 238.19 GW in August. In September this year, it was 240.17 GW. The peak demand was 222.16 GW in October 2023.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 20578.00, up by 310.10 points or 1.53% after trading in a range of 20507.75 and 20602.50. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 7.34%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 5.91%, BPCL up by 4.99%, ONGC up by 4.19% and Larsen & Toubro up by 3.93%. On the flip side, Britannia down by 0.90%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.66%, Sun Pharma down by 0.51%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.48% and LTIMindtree down by 0.27% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 145.15 points or 0.86% to 16,685.15, Taiwan Weighted lost 16.87 points or 0.1% to 17,421.48, Shanghai Composite weakened 7.16 points or 0.24% to 3,024.48 and Nikkei 225 slipped 200.24 points or 0.6% to 33,231.27, while Jakarta Composite gained 79.72 points or 1.13% to 7,139.63, Straits Times rose 6.8 points or 0.22% to 3,097.11 and KOSPI increased 9.94 points or 0.4% to 2,514.95.