Jubilation continues on Dalal Street in morning trade

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade jubilantly in morning trade with domestic bourses regaining their crucial 72,400 (Sensex) and 21,900 (Nifty) levels, as the government remained committed to its goal of fiscal consolidation in the Interim Budget 2024-25. Strength in overseas peers also aided the sentiment. Traders took support as the government's gross tax revenue is projected to grow 11.46 per cent to Rs 38.31 trillion in the next fiscal (FY25), buoyed by 11.6 per cent growth in Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections. GST collection in 2024-25 is estimated to rise to Rs 10.68 trillion, an increase of Rs 1.1 trillion or 11.6 per cent. Some optimism also came with Managing Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva’s statement that the economic success of India is grounded in the pursuit of reforms over the last years and exuded confidence that it would achieve its goal of being a developed nation by 2047 by staying the course. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green after US labour market data indicated a cooling economy provided support to the Federal Reserve to combat inflation.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 72429.30, up by 784.00 points or 1.09% 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 1.06%, while Small cap index was up by 1.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.46%, Utilities up by 2.29%, PSU up by 2.23%, Energy up by 2.21% and Power up by 2.12%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid Corporation up by 2.99%, Infosys up by 2.04%, Reliance Industries up by 2.03%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.81% and TCS up by 1.55%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.56% was the lone loser.

Meanwhile, Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva has said the economic success of India is grounded in the pursuit of reforms over the last years. Georgieva exuded confidence that India would achieve its goal of being a developed nation by 2047 by staying the course. Georgieva said ‘India has been a bright spot in the world economy, and it continues to be so. We are upgrading projections for Indian growth to 6.5 per cent in 2024. This comes on the back of fairly strong performance in 2023. The success of India is grounded in the pursuit of reforms over the last years.’

Georgieva said that one very significant advantages of India is the bold actions on the digital front with the digital public infrastructure, digital ID and making digital a strong comparative strength of India allowing small entrepreneurs to tap into markets in the way they were not able to do before.

She said ‘We also see in India recognition that female participation in the labour markets is insufficient. I think Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi is right to bet on Indian women and open up more space for their participation in the economy.’ He added ‘Last but not least, India recognizes that innovation is what is going to drive a future competitiveness, very effective and efficient investment in R&D as we saw with the moon landing. This creates a very fertile ground for future growth.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 21938.70, up by 241.25 points or 1.11% after trading in a range of 21812.00 and 21963.45. There were 44 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 4.61%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 4.31%, Power Grid Corporation up by 4.01%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.71% and Infosys up by 2.56%. On the flip side, Eicher Motors down by 1.91%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.55%, Titan Company down by 0.18%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.08% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.05% were the top losers. 

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 218.78 points or 0.61% to 36,230.24, Taiwan Weighted added 65.72 points or 0.37% to 18,033.83, Hang Seng advanced 91.05 points or 0.58% to 15,657.26, Straits Times rose 34.71 points or 1.1% to 3,177.77 and KOSPI increased 60.85 points or 2.39% to 2,603.31.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite plunged 9.23 points or 0.13% to 7,192.47 and Shanghai Composite weakened 20.02 points or 0.73% to 2,750.72.