Benchmarks trade higher in late morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks gained traction and traded with gains of around half percent in late morning deals, led by gains in PSU, Energy and Utilities stocks. Sentiments remained up-beat with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh stating that foreign direct investments into India is likely to gather momentum in 2024 as healthy macroeconomic numbers, better industrial output as well as attractive PLI schemes will attract more overseas players amid geopolitical headwinds and tighter interest rate regime globally. Some comfort also came with Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the Centre has taken many proactive steps in the past few years to control retail prices of food items, and that the government would keep inflation under control while ensuring the country's economic growth. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red even as cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation data boosted bets that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates next year. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 71392.46, up by 285.50 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 71012.08 and 71471.29. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.81%, while Small cap index was up by 0.36%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 1.48%, Energy up by 1.37%, Utilities up by 1.34%, Oil & Gas up by 1.21% and Metal up by 1.20%, while IT down by 0.30% and TECK down by 0.21% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 1.78%, Wipro up by 1.78%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.73%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1.53% and Tata Steel up by 1.50%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.29%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.39%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.26%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.21% and HCL Technologies down by 0.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the Centre has taken many proactive steps in the past few years to control retail prices of food items, and that the government would keep inflation under control while ensuring the country's economic growth.

He said ‘Today, India has become the fastest growing large economy. Going forward, we will keep inflation under check and also ensure economic growth.’ Retail inflation inched up to a three-month high of 5.55% in November, driven by higher food prices. Retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was at 4.87% in October. Inflation had been declining since August, when it touched 6.83%.

On the steps taken by the Central government, he highlighted that 140 new price monitoring centres had been set up to keep a close watch on wholesale and retail prices of essential commodities. In the last two years, he said, when the world had witnessed very high inflation, especially in food items, India had been able to control inflation through proactive fiscal and monetary policies.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 21439.30, up by 89.90 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 21329.45 and 21472.30. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 3.29%, Adani Enterprises up by 2.12%, Divi's Lab up by 1.87%, Coal India up by 1.78% and NTPC up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.44%, HCL Technologies down by 0.44%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.37%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.31% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.28% were the top losers. 

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 14.49 points or 0.04% to 33,239.54, Straits Times fell 0.31 points or 0.01% to 3,140.01 and Shanghai Composite weakened 20.63 points or 0.71% to 2,898.18. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted added 124.44 points or 0.71% to 17,729.28 and KOSPI increased 4.04 points or 0.16% to 2,603.55.