Sensex, Nifty trade higher with decent gains in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks started Saturday special trading session on a positive note mirroring upbeat mood on Wall Street overnight after the US manufacturing PMI growth contracted to 47.1 per cent as against 49.1 per cent in January. This was the 16th straight month that the PMI remained below 50-mark. The weak economic data bolstered hopes of interest rate cut later this year. Domestically, Sensex and Nifty hit fresh record highs and are trading higher with decent gains of around 0.20% each in early deals on account of value buying in all the sector indices. broader indices - BSE Mid & Small Cap - are outperforming larger peers with gains of over half a percent.

Foreign fund inflows aided domestic sentiments. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 128.94 crore on March 1, provisional data from the NSE showed. Sentiments got a boost as GST collections rose by 12.5 per cent to Rs 1.68 lakh crore in February 2024 compared to the year-ago period buoyed by an increase in domestic sales as well as imports. With this, the gross GST collection in April-February of the current fiscal stood at Rs 18.40 lakh crore, up by 11.7 per cent year-on-year. Adding more optimism, the Reserve Bank of India data showed foreign exchange reserves rose by $2.9 billion to $619 billion in the week ended February 23.

Equity markets will be open for trading till 10 AM for the first session. Thereafter, the NSE and BSE will switch trading from the primary site to the Disaster Recovery site in order to test preparedness for any unforeseen events. Trading for the second session will commence at 11:30 AM and close at 12:30 noon. Exchanges have capped the maximium limit, both on the upper and lower side, at 5 per cent for individual stocks in today's trading session.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73891.11, up by 145.76 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 73778.14 and 73982.12. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.55%, while Small cap index was up by 0.59%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.80%, Capital Goods up by 0.78%, Industrials up by 0.67%, Metal up by 0.67% and Healthcare up by 0.65%, while there was no loser on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.57%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.10%, SBI up by 0.87%, Tata Motors up by 0.85% and Wipro up by 0.77%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.53%, Titan Company down by 0.44%, Sun Pharma down by 0.32%, ICICI Bank down by 0.31% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.31% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, a day after India posted an 8.4 per cent growth in the December quarter, and revised upwards the estimates for the preceding two quarters, the State Bank of India (SBI) in its research report ‘Ecowrap’ said that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for the current financial year (FY24) could be within striking distance of 8 per cent. It said ‘The third quarter GDP numbers jolted the psyche and cognitive framework of most in markets, while sweeping some by a pleasant surprise. Clearly, right policy prisms and perspectives can trump irrational expectations bordering fault lines’.

It noted that defying all estimates, the economy grew 8.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2023-24 after exhibiting more than 8 per cent growth in the preceding two quarters. The buoyancy in indirect tax mop-up (32 per cent year-on-year growth), gap between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Value Added (GVA) growth widened. As per the report, ‘For fiscal 2023-24 GDP growth is expected to increase 7.6 per cent and GVA growth by 6.9 per cent… we estimate fourth quarter GDP growth at 5.9 per cent, which we believe is an understatement. Thus it is most likely that FY24 GDP growth could be within striking distance of 8 per cent’.

The SBI report further said with the government’s efforts to ensure quality of life for all citizens and stopping leakage of benefits through direct benefit transfer, for the first time the per capita GDP at current prices crossed Rs 2 lakh mark in 2023-24. In constant prices, too, per capita GDP has increased to Rs 1.24 lakh in the current fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22397.35, up by 58.60 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 22366.95 and 22420.25. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 1.67%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.65%, Cipla up by 1.12%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.12% and Apollo Hospital up by 1.11%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.47%, Titan Company down by 0.44%, ICICI Bank down by 0.33%, Sun Pharma down by 0.27% and Power Grid down by 0.24% were the top losers.