Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Wednesday’s trading session in positive terrain ahead of the US Fed minutes. After making a positive start, soon index turned volatile, amid foreign fund outflows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 1,874.54 crore on May 21. Market participants were cautious as domestic rating agency ICRA projected India's GDP growth to moderate to a four quarter low of 6.7 per cent in March quarter of 2023-24 fiscal. For the full 2023-24 fiscal, ICRA estimates GDP growth to come in at 7.8 per cent. ICRA Chief Economist, Head-Research & Outreach Aditi Nayar said the lower volume growth coupled with diminishing gains from commodity prices dampening the profitability of some of the industrial sectors is expected to dampen India's GVA growth in Q4 FY2024.
In afternoon session, index traded above its neutral line, as sentiments were positive, amid a private report stating that private sector investment is likely to pick up in the second half of the current financial year in sectors like hotel and tourism, after years of government-led robust capex to promote infrastructure building. The government has been pushing capital expenditure to promote economic growth. The push in expenditure has helped the country sustain the growth momentum in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic. At the end, index extended its gains to close near day’s high point led by buying in Reliance Industries and Infosys stocks.
Traders were seen piling up positions in FMCG, Realty and Media, while selling was witnessed in Metal, Financial services and Bank. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Granules India, Oberoi Realty and Bharat Electronics. On the other hand, the top losers Bharat Heavy Electricals, Hindustan Copper and Indian Energy Exchange. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 22400 - 23100 calls and 22400 - 22600 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
