Benchmarks add some gains in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks added some gains in morning deals, led by gains in Realty, Energy and Power stocks. Traders took support with Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India stating that India's engineering exports to Russia doubled to $1.22 billion till February during the 2023-24 fiscal. It said the shipments to the country stood at $616.68 million in the previous fiscal. Traders also took a note of Fitch Ratings’ report that the profitability of Indian banks is likely to continue to improve, although net interest margin (NIM) compression will limit earnings upside over the medium term. It also said banks’ rising funding costs are likely to remain an important factor driving NIMs, but it is expected that earnings will be resilient despite the sector’s dependence on net interest income, which contributed 75 per cent of total operating income in the first nine months of the financial year ending March 2024. 

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street, as traders continued to be cautious and looked ahead to key U.S. and European inflation readings later in the week and comments from central bank officials for additional clues on the interest rate outlook.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 72973.88, up by 503.58 points or 0.69% after trading in a range of 72600.73 and 73009.35. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.39%, while Small cap index was up by 0.75%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.30%, Energy up by 1.24%, Power up by 1.20%, Oil & Gas up by 1.17% and Industrials up by 0.99%, while Metal down by 0.02% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.46%, Reliance Industries up by 2.28%, Axis Bank up by 1.18%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.90% and HCL Technologies up by 0.74%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 0.59%, Wipro down by 0.32% and JSW Steel down by 0.30% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India has said that India's engineering exports to Russia doubled to $1.22 billion till February during the 2023-24 fiscal. It said the shipments to the country stood at $616.68 million in the previous fiscal.

Further, it stated the exports to the US dipped seven per cent year-on-year to $15.95 billion during this period. In case of China, engineering shipments to that country saw a marginal decline to $2.38 billion from $2.40 billion in the period under review. Exports to the UAE and Australia, with which India had signed an FTA, remained positive.

Till February, shipments to the UAE rose 16 per cent on-year to $5.22 billion, while those to Australia was higher by five per cent at $1.30 billion. Besides, it said cumulative engineering exports during April-February (2023-24) stood at $98.03 billion as against $96.84 billion in the corresponding period a year ago. In the last few months, engineering exports from India have been on a steady growth path. The remarkable performance of the sector in the last three months made it possible for the cumulative exports to record high growth.

EEPC India Chairman Arun Kumar Garodia said 'as India's current economic performance stabilises, we are hopeful that with the positive turn of tide in global trade, India's exporting community will be able to lift exports to a new high.'

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22149.00, up by 144.30 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 22052.85 and 22161.15. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports & SEZ up by 2.71%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.61%, Reliance Industries up by 2.36%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.84% and Eicher Motors up by 1.53%. On the flip side, Apollo Hospital down by 1.12%, UPL down by 0.86%, Britannia Industries down by 0.84%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.45% and Divi's Lab down by 0.45% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; KOSPI dropped 1.35 points or 0.05% to 2,755.74, Jakarta Composite plunged 23.08 points or 0.31% to 7,342.58, Shanghai Composite weakened 15.74 points or 0.52% to 3,015.74 and Hang Seng declined 105.4 points or 0.64% to 16,512.92.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 surged 486.59 points or 1.2% to 40,884.62, Taiwan Weighted added 123.35 points or 0.61% to 20,249.84 and Straits Times rose 25.04 points or 0.77% to 3,258.37.