Sensex, Nifty add some gains in early noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks added some gains during early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading higher, on the back of buying at Metal, Basic Materials and Energy counters.  However, gains remained capped, amid a private report stating that tackling India's chronic joblessness will be the biggest challenge for the government over the next five years, even as the country remains the world's fastest-growing major economy. Besides, economic think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said that The EU’s recently passed regulation, Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) will lead to high costs and hurt exports from developing countries. The ESPR mandates that imported products meet stringent sustainability standards, including a Digital Product Passport for traceability.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, after China's central bank maintained its lending rates unchanged, as widely expected. The People's Bank of China kept its one-year loan prime rate unchanged at 3.45 percent. Similarly, the five-year LPR, the benchmark for mortgage rates, was retained at 3.95 percent. The five-year LPR was last lowered by 5 basis points in February to support the property market.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 77444.43, up by 106.84 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 77100.36 and 77588.31. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.47%, while Small cap index was up by 1.07%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.06%, Basic Materials up by 1.85%, Energy up by 1.09%, Oil & Gas up by 0.96% and Realty up by 0.90%, while Auto down by 0.42%, Healthcare down by 0.25%, TECK down by 0.25%, IT down by 0.05% and Consumer Durables down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were JSW Steel up by 1.84%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.53%, Reliance Industries up by 1.12%, Tata Steel up by 1.06% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.78%, Sun Pharma down by 1.75%, Power Grid down by 1.08%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.84% and Titan down by 0.81% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has monetised assets worth Rs 1.56 lakh crore under the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), lower than the target of Rs 1.8 lakh crore. Under the NMP, the aggregate monetisation potential of the central government’s brownfield infrastructure assets has been estimated at Rs 6 lakh crore over a four-year period, from FY22 to FY25.

The total target for the first two years - 2021-22 and 2022-23 - under NMP was around Rs 2.5 lakh crore, against which around Rs 2.30 lakh crore was achieved. During FY24, against the target of Rs 1.8 lakh crore, which is the highest among all the four years, the achievement has been around Rs 1.56 lakh crore. Further, this achievement in 2023-24 is around 159 per cent of 2021-22. 

The ministries of road transport and highways monetised assets worth Rs 40,314 crore in FY24, while the amounts for coal ministry was Rs 56,794 crore, power (Rs 14,690 crore), mines (Rs 4,090 crore), petroleum and natural gas (Rs 9,587 crore), urban (Rs 6,480 crore), and shipping (Rs 7,627 crore). All these ministries achieved 70 per cent of their monetisation targets. Asset monetisation is aimed at tapping private sector investment to create new infrastructure.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23557.55, up by 41.55 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 23442.60 and 23587.70. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 2.78%, JSW Steel up by 1.87%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.63%, BPCL up by 1.48% and Coal India up by 1.39%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.79%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.76%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.01%, Power Grid down by 0.99% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.97% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; KOSPI increased 13.26 points or 0.47% to 2,810.59, Nikkei 225 surged 44.9 points or 0.12% to 38,615.66, Taiwan Weighted added 115.4 points or 0.49% to 23,324.94 and Jakarta Composite gained 62.94 points or 0.93% to 6,789.86, while Hang Seng declined 88.86 points or 0.48% to 18,341.53, Shanghai Composite weakened 8.29 points or 0.28% to 3,009.76 and Straits Times fell 9.1 points or 0.28% to 3,294.90.