Sensex, Nifty turn positive in early noon deals

Erasing all of their losses, Indian equity indices turned positive in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty holding notable gains, aided by positive cues from other Asian markets along with heavy buying at Metal and Basic Materials counters. Sentiments were optimistic, amid a private report stating that India's current world-beating economic growth rate on the back of an investment boom resembles that of 2003-07 when growth averaged more than 8 per cent. Some relief came after the government launched various initiatives including Dissemination of Indian Standard Time through NTP, an Integrated Price Monitoring Dashboard and CCPA website for seamless redressal of violation of consumers rights, with an aim to empower consumers and protect consumer rights. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as China industrial production grew more than expected in the January to February period. The data released by the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that industrial output posted an increase of 7.0 percent in the January to February period, faster than the 6.8 percent rise in December. Output was forecast to grow moderately by 5.0 percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 72802.21, up by 158.78 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 72314.16 and 72889.09. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.15%, while Small cap index was down by 0.16%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.29%, Basic Materials up by 0.64%, Healthcare up by 0.57%, Capital Goods up by 0.55% and Auto up by 0.53%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.73%, IT down by 0.55%, FMCG down by 0.32%, TECK down by 0.29% and Realty down by 0.17% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 5.02%, JSW Steel up by 3.01%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.42%, Tata Motors up by 1.72% and Axis Bank up by 1.50%. On the flip side, Titan down by 1.43%, Asian Paints down by 1.25%, Nestle down by 0.89%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.82% and Infosys down by 0.76% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, former chief economic adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian has said India's latest Gross domestic product (GDP) numbers are 'absolutely mystifying' and difficult to comprehend. He said India's economy grew by better-than-expected 8.4 per cent in the final three months of 2023 - the fastest pace in one-and-half years. He said the NSO has also revised GDP estimates for the first and second quarters of this fiscal to 8.2 per cent and 8.1 per cent from 7.8 per cent and 7.6 per cent, respectively. 

Elaborating further, Subramanian said while the implied inflation in these numbers is 1 to 1.5 per cent, actual inflation in the economy is somewhere between 3 and 5 per cent. He pointed out that the economy is growing at seven and a half per cent, even though private consumption is at 3 per cent. And in the latest data, he said errors and omissions, which are not accounted for, are actually about 4.3 percentage points out of the estimated 7.6 per cent growth for FY24. 

According to former CEA, while the buzz is that the economy has become a very good place to invest in, in the last few quarters, and last few years, it has actually declined very sharply. He said ‘you can see foreign direct investment actually collapsed quite a bit’. He wondered if India has become such an attractive place, why is not there more foreign direct investment. He said private investment, corporate investment is well below levels in 2016.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22055.00, up by 31.65 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 21916.55 and 22093.50. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 4.80%, JSW Steel up by 2.95%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.36%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.84% and Tata Motors up by 1.61%. On the flip side, UPL down by 2.12%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 1.98%, Tata Consumer Products down by 1.65%, Titan down by 1.48% and Asian Paints down by 1.30% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng advanced 50.01 points or 0.3% to 16,770.90, Taiwan Weighted added 197.35 points or 0.99% to 19,879.85, Jakarta Composite gained 3.22 points or 0.04% to 7,331.27, Shanghai Composite strengthened 30.11 points or 0.99% to 3,084.75, KOSPI increased 19.00 points or 0.71% to 2,685.84 and Nikkei 225 surged 1032.8 points or 2.6% to 39,740.44, while Straits Times fell 1.75 points or 0.06% to 3,171.21.