Benchmarks continue to trade higher in late morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade higher in late morning deals, led by gains in Realty, Oil & Gas and Consumer Durables stocks. Traders took support with a latest data by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showing that India’s foreign exchange reserves rose to a new high for the third straight week, reaching $645.58 billion in the week ended March 29. The total reserves rose by $2.95 billion in the previous week. Some support also came as India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has put out a report maintaining a neutral outlook on the finances of Indian states for the fiscal year 2024-2025 (FY25), showing States' aggregate revenue deficit is projected to be 0.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for FY25, down from 0.5 per cent in FY24. On the sectoral front, Automobile industry stocks remained in limelight with a private report that electric-vehicle sales in India are expected to rise 66% this year after nearly doubling in 2023 as state subsidies help fuel demand and supporting infrastructure comes up in the country. The rapid growth in sales comes at a time when EV growth in other key markets such as the United States and China are slowing. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed as new jobs data underscored the strength of the U.S. labor market and economy but prompted traders to scale down their rate cut expectations.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 74607.35, up by 359.13 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 74410.07 and 74673.84. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.38%, while Small cap index was up by 0.31%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.06%, Oil & Gas up by 1.52%, Consumer Durables up by 1.44%, Auto up by 1.33% and Energy up by 1.31%, while IT down by 0.21% and TECK down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.22%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.26%, Reliance Industries up by 1.70%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1.44% and Axis Bank up by 1.32%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.08%, Nestle down by 0.57%, HDFC Bank down by 0.35%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.12% and TCS down by 0.09% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has said that India is planning to stop importing urea by the end of 2025 as a massive push for domestic manufacturing has helped bridge the gap between supply and demand. He noted that the availability of fertilisers is very important for Indian agriculture. He also said the country has been using chemical fertilisers for the last 60-65 years to enhance crop production. He said now the government is making efforts to promote alternate fertilisers like nano liquid urea and nano liquid di-ammonium phosphate (DAP).

Talking about achieving self-sufficiency in urea production, the minister said the government has adopted a two-pronged strategy to end dependency on urea imports. He highlighted that the government has revived four closed urea plants and is reviving one another factory. He noted that India needs around 35 million tonnes of urea annually to meet domestic demand. He said the installed domestic production capacities have been increased to around 31 million tonne from 22.5 million tonne in 2014-15. He added that at present, the gap between annual domestic production and demand is around 4 million tonne.

Mandaviya further said the annual domestic production capacity of urea would reach around 32.5 million tonnes after the commissioning of the fifth plant and the target is to replace the use of 2-2.5 million tonne of conventional urea with nano liquid urea. According to the government data, imports of urea fell to 7.58 million tonne in 2022-23 from 9.136 million tonne in the previous year. Urea imports stood at 9.828 million tonne in 2020-21, 9.123 million tonne in 2019-20 and 7.448 million tonne in 2018-19.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22618.25, up by 104.55 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 22550.35 and 22630.90. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.24%, Eicher Motors up by 2.75%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.05%, Tata Consumer Product up by 1.83% and Shriram Finance up by 1.71%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &SEZ down by 1.77%, Apollo Hospital down by 1.54%, Wipro down by 1.04%, Nestle down by 0.62% and Adani Enterprises down by 0.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Nikkei 225 surged 300.66 points or 0.77% to 39,292.74, Taiwan Weighted added 108.57 points or 0.53% to 20,446.17 and KOSPI increased 8.03 points or 0.3% to 2,722.24. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite weakened 5.35 points or 0.17% to 3,063.95, Hang Seng declined 14.24 points or 0.09% to 16,709.68 and Straits Times fell 1.42 points or 0.04% to 3,216.84.