Sensex, nifty trade firm ahead of RBI monetary policy outcome

Indian equity benchmarks made optimistic start on Friday tracking overnight gains on Wall Street as well as mostly positive cues from Asian counterparts. Soon, markets gained traction and touched new peaks as investors awaited the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy outcome, where the bank is expected to stand pat on key rates for a fifth consecutive meeting. Sentiments got a boost as Niti Aayog vice chairman Suman Bery said India has the potential to grow at 8 per cent as the country is labour-rich with enough institutional maturity of a functioning democracy. Meanwhile, Indian rupee is trading slightly stronger at 83.34 per dollar against previous close of 83.36. 

Most of the Asian markets are trading higher tracking firm global cues, but Nikkei slipped during trade as Japan's economy fell faster than first estimated in the third quarter, revised data showed, as the household sector faced growing headwinds, complicating the central bank's efforts to phase out its accommodative monetary policy. Back home, insurance industry stocks are in focus with a report that the new business premium of life insurance companies declined by 25.28% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in November 2023 as the premiums of both the state-owned LIC and private insurers saw a decline.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 69752.94, up by 231.25 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 69606.69 and 69767.21. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.40%, while Small cap index was up by 0.53%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.46%, Realty up by 1.08%, PSU up by 0.73%, Basic Materials up by 0.72% and Capital Goods up by 0.65%, while Telecom down by 0.26% and Auto down by 0.05% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were JSW Steel up by 3.02%, HCL Technologies up by 1.76%, NTPC up by 1.50%, Power Grid Corp up by 1.07% and Indusind Bank up by 0.92%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 0.72%, SBI down by 0.51%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.37%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.27% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing views over growth of Indian economy, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran has said that in the current fiscal ending March 31, 2024, Indian economy will grow at 6.5 per cent. He added this decade is going to be the decade of uncertainty. If the corporate sector delays its investment, then the virtuous cycle of employment generation and economic growth will not materialise.

He said ‘When it comes to the finance ministry, our emphasis has been to plan conservatively, both with respect to nominal GDP growth assumptions, buoyancy assumptions for revenue growth, etc. And I think, when I talk about being able to achieve six and a half per cent in real GDP growth on average, I am giving myself enough room to surprise on the upside’.

Nageswaran said rebalancing towards investments and manufacturing will happen if the investment cycle gets into high gear as it did in the first decade of the millennium. He added ‘So, the rebalancing is something that we are waiting for, as all the enabling conditions are in place’.

Moreover, the Indian economy grew 7.2 per cent in 2022-23. The Reserve Bank also expects growth to be 6.5 per cent in the current fiscal. India's economy grew 7.6 per cent in the September quarter of this fiscal and remained the fastest-growing large economy, mainly due to better performance by manufacturing, mining and services sectors.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 20981.65, up by 80.50 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 20932.55 and 20985.90. There were 36 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were JSW Steel up by 2.90%, HCL Technologies up by 2.03%, NTPC up by 1.57%, Hindalco up by 1.40% and UPL up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 0.58%, SBI down by 0.53%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.50%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.40% and Divi's Lab down by 0.25% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted surged 130.53 points or 0.75% to 17,409.27, Hang Seng advanced 33.71 points or 0.21% to 16,379.60, Jakarta Composite gained 32.18 points or 0.45% to 7,166.80, Straits Times rose 31.4 points or 1.01% to 3,105.66, KOSPI increased 21.26 points or 0.85% to 2,513.33 and Shanghai Composite was up by 12.77 points or 0.43% to 2,978.98, while Nikkei 225 slipped 546.03 points or 1.69% to 32,312.28.