Sensex, Nifty wipe out opening gains to trade flat in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made optimistic start on Wednesday tracking firm cues from Wall Street overnight as well as broadly positive cues from Asian counterparts, reflected a positive reaction to the highly anticipated report on US consumer price inflation in February, which showed a slowdown in U.S. core price growth and raised optimism about the US Fed cutting interest rates in June. Sensex and Nifty soon wiped out their opening gains and are trading flat in early deals due to selling at Utilities, Power, PSU and Metal counters. Investors are cautious amid mixed macro-economic data as India’s retail inflation in February eased to a four-month low of 5.09 per cent, remaining within the Reserve Bank's comfort zone of 6 per cent for the sixth month in a row, while India's industrial production growth slowed to 3.8 per cent in January, mainly due to poor performance of manufacturing, mining and power sectors.

However, downside remained capped amid foreign fund inflows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 73.12 crore on March 12, provisional data from the NSE showed. On the sectoral front, automobile industry stocks are in focus with the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) showing that passenger vehicles in India recorded their highest-ever February domestic sales of 370,786 units this year, 10.8 per cent higher than 334,790 units in February last year. In stock specific development, Jet Airways hit the 5 per cent upper circuit after NCLAT approved the transfer of its ownership to Jalan Kalrock Consortium.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73711.18, up by 43.22 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 73648.45 and 74052.75. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 1.06%, while Small cap index was down by 1.77%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.64%, IT up by 0.22% and Bankex up by 0.12%, while, Utilities down by 3.42%, Power down by 2.86%, PSU down by 2.04%, Metal down by 1.75%, Telecom down by 1.58% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 5.79%, Nestle up by 1.59%, Wipro up by 0.70%, ICICI Bank up by 0.60% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.49%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 3.86%, NTPC down by 3.39%, Tata Steel down by 2.20%, Tata Motors down by 1.61% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.55% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran has said India's real GDP growth in FY24 will be closer to 8 per cent on higher activity in industry and services verticals. Nageswaran said the growth will be higher than the Ministry of Statistics' estimate of 7.6 per cent, and added that there is much reason to be optimistic in the near term about the prospects in India.

He stated ‘Unless the Q4 GDP numbers fall very significantly from the momentum that we have seen in the first three quarters, the GDP will be closer to 8 per cent rather than 7.6 per cent as the Ministry of Statistics is currently estimating.’ However, he stressed on the need to put heads down and work towards the goal without succumbing to triumphalism and exuberance.

Besides, industry and services are seen pulling growth for FY24, while agriculture will be behind because of the delayed and erratic monsoons which impacted the summer crop, he said, adding that the high sowing of the winter crop, waning of El Nino and expectations of a normal monsoon bode well for the farm sector going ahead. Pointing out to sluggishness in global growth, he said exports will not be the biggest growth driver going ahead unlike the first decade of this century.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22314.65, down by 21.05 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 22301.30 and 22446.75. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ITC up by 5.81%, Nestle up by 1.73%, LTIMindtree up by 0.93%, Britannia Industries up by 0.92% and Wipro up by 0.68%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 3.89%, NTPC down by 3.48%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 3.18%, Adani Enterprises down by 2.90% and Coal India down by 2.35% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted rose 59.5 points or 0.3% to 19,974.05, Hang Seng advanced 45.25 points or 0.26% to 17,138.75, Jakarta Composite gained 24.28 points or 0.33% to 7,406.19, Straits Times added 17.43 points or 0.55% to 3,158.90 and KOSPI was up by 7.31 points or 0.27% to 2,689.12. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 slipped 125.73 points or 0.32% to 38,671.78 and Shanghai Composite was down by 8.09 points or 0.27% to 3,047.85.