Indian markets come back in green during early afternoon deals

In a highly volatile session, Indian equity benchmarks came back in green during early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading marginally higher, supported by buying at Banking and Healthcare counters, despite weak cues from other Asian markets. Investors got support after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest ‘Industrial outlook survey of the manufacturing sector for Q3:2023-24’ has said that manufacturing companies reported positive demand conditions during Q3:2023-24 as reflected in their assessment of production, capacity utilisation, pending orders, employment and overall business situation but they were less sanguine when compared to the previous survey round. Traders took note of a private report stating that Indian stock trading volumes have surpassed that of the Hong Kong exchange, signaling a widespread positive outlook on Indian equities, despite rising concern over valuations.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Uchida Shinichi said that the actual interest rate path will depend on future economic and price developments. Uchida added that once the bank achieve 2 percent inflation target in a sustainable and stable manner, then it would be natural to discontinue risky asset purchases.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 71534.86, up by 106.43 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 71200.31 and 71640.98. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 1.23%, while Small cap index was down by 1.55%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.07%, Healthcare up by 0.31%, Consumer Durables up by 0.29% and FMCG up by 0.27%, while PSU down by 2.20%, Telecom down by 2.12%, Metal down by 1.96%, Oil & Gas down by 1.93% and Energy down by 1.43% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.32%, SBI up by 2.04%, ICICI Bank up by 1.96%, Axis Bank up by 1.42% and ITC up by 1.15%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.11%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.94%, Infosys down by 1.88%, NTPC down by 1.75% and Tata Steel down by 1.64% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh has said that digitisation of land records and registration is expected to improve the Gross domestic product (GDP) of the country by about 1.5 per cent. 

He emphasized that saturation of the digitisation process of land records and registration will help mitigate the huge pendency of court cases involving land disputes. He said it will also help in improving the ranking of the country in terms of ease of doing business. 

Stressing on the importance of emerging technologies such as blockchain and CORS in the modernisation process of land management, he said this will go a long way in achieving the objectives of the government under 'Gatishakti'. He also highlighted the importance of new initiatives of the government for providing land records in multiple languages to enhance ease of doing business.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 21759.85, up by 41.90 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 21629.90 and 21780.50. There were 26 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim Industries up by 4.46%, SBI up by 2.35%, Sun Pharma up by 2.25%, ICICI Bank up by 1.82% and Apollo Hospital Ent. up by 1.74%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.25%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.13%, Coal India down by 2.10%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.97% and Hindalco down by 1.94% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 131.49 points or 0.84% to 15,746.58 and Straits Times fell 4.61 points or 0.15% to 3,138.30, while Nikkei 225 surged 34.14 points or 0.09% to 36,897.42