Bulls take charge on Dalal Street tracking firm global cues

Indian equity benchmarks made optimistic start on Friday as bulls came back in action a day after the Interim Budget, following firm cues from Wall Street overnight as well as higher opening in Asian counterparts. Also, fall in the 10-year US Treasury bond yield and overnight sharp fall in crude oil prices aided domestic sentiments. Markets are trading in fine-fettle with gains of around a percent each in early deals on account of healthy buying.  Sentiments got a boost as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said India has sustained its export growth notwithstanding the global challenges emerging due to issues like the Israel-Hamas war and the Budget has laid out a strong foundation to push the economic growth. 

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly higher on Friday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with the markets rebounding as investors shrugged off the US Fed's indication that an interest rate cut in March is unlikely after a sell-off on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan said the monetary base in Japan was up 4.8 percent on year in January, coming in at 668.019 trillion yen.

Back home, insurance industry stocks are in focus as the insurance regulator asked general insurers to put Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (AYUSH) at par with other medical treatments in their health insurance policies, citing increased popularity. In stock specific development, Indian Hotels traded higher as its consolidated net profit in Q3 rose 18 per cent to Rs 477crore. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 72331.66, up by 686.36 points or 0.96% after trading in a range of 71977.56 and 72543.29. There were 29 stocks advancing against 1 stock declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.84%, while Small cap index was up by 0.93%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.07%, Energy up by 1.93%, Realty up by 1.88%, PSU up by 1.76% and Utilities up by 1.75%, while there was no loser on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 3.09%, Infosys up by 1.91%, Reliance Industries up by 1.91%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.62% and ICICI Bank up by 1.58%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.49% was the sole loser.

Meanwhile, notwithstanding the global challenges emerging due to issues like the Israel-Hamas war, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India sustained its export growth and the Budget has laid out a strong foundation to push the economic growth. He added that certainly, the country is facing ‘very severe’ challenges due to these conflicts. He said ‘But despite these challenges, India continues to be a bright spot in terms of economy, economic growth, and we continue to broadly sustained our exports...I think, the Indian story is a story of resilience, and strength’.

The Russia-Ukraine war, the Isreal-Hamas conflict and the Red Sea crisis have disrupted the global supply chains. Red Sea is the busiest trade route as it accounts for 30 per cent of global container traffic and 12 per cent of global trade. Goyal said due to these challenges the growth potential on the trade front that we had is slowing very significantly and showing weakness. He added that due to these wars and crises ‘our logistics, our shipment lines, out of India for exports’ are getting impacted significantly.

Besides, the government data showed that India's exports rose by only 1 per cent to $38.45 billion in December 2023 while the trade deficit narrowed to a three-month low of $19.8 billion, according to the government data. Exports during April-December this fiscal dipped by 5.7 per cent to $317.12 billion. Imports contracted by 7.93 per cent to $505.15 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $188.02 billion in the first three quarters as against $212.34 billion in April-December 2022.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 21922.80, up by 225.35 points or 1.04% after trading in a range of 21812.00 and 21963.45. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports & SEZ up by 4.86%, BPCL up by 3.86%, Power Grid up by 2.95%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.44% and Divi's Lab up by 2.31%. On the flip side, Eicher Motors down by 2.00%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.64%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.43% and Axis Bank down by 0.03% were the few losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 jumped 262.62 points or 0.73% to 36,274.08, Hang Seng surged 115.91 points or 0.74% to 15,682.12, Taiwan Weighted rose 64.1 points or 0.36% to 18,032.21, KOSPI added 55.60 points or 2.19% to 2,598.06 and Straits Times was up by 35.17 points or 1.12% to 3,178.23. On the other hand, Shanghai Composite fell 20.02 points or 0.73% to 2,750.72 and Jakarta Composite was down by 9.01 points or 0.13% to 7,192.69.