Markets continue gaining momentum in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their gaining momentum in late afternoon session led by gains in IT and banking stocks. IT sector stocks traded with healthy gains after TCS announced its June quarter earnings. Investors were braced for India’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data to be out later in a day. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as investors reacted to surprisingly soft U.S. inflation data, mixed Chinese trade figures and comments from several Federal Reserve officials on the rate trajectory. European markets were trading higher amid expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank could move to cut rates in September.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 80727.28, up by 829.94 points or 1.04% after trading in a range of 79843.39 and 80893.51. There were 20 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged. 

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.07%, while Small cap index was up by 0.10%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 4.59%, TECK up by 3.58%, Bankex up by 0.53%, Telecom up by 0.33% and Basic Materials was up by 0.28%, while Realty down by 1.72%, Power down by 0.85%, Capital Goods down by 0.63%, Industrials down by 0.51% and Auto was down by 0.39% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 7.03%, Infosys up by 3.80%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.49%, HCL Tech up by 3.31% and Axis Bank up by 1.95%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.23%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.19%, ITC down by 0.19%, ICICI Bank down by 0.06% and Tata Motors down by 0.03% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani has said that the India’s gross domestic product (GDP) will grow around 7 per cent in the current fiscal year (FY25) and is on track to maintain a similar growth rate for several years. He said there are new challenges facing the country and they will have to be dealt with. Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) pegged the FY25 GDP growth rate at 7.2 per cent.

Talking on the decline in private consumption expenditures in the last fiscal year, Virmani said ‘it is actually recovering now. The effect of the pandemic was to draw down savings... and very different from previous financial shocks’. Explaining further, he said ‘it is like what he calls a double drought situation. We also had, of course, El Nino last year, but what the pandemic did was that it resulted in people having to draw down their savings... So, the obvious reaction is to rebuild your savings, which tend to reduce current consumption’.

On the decline in foreign direct investments (FDI) to India, despite it being the fastest growing economy, he said riskless return of investment is much higher in the US and other developed countries than in emerging markets. He said ‘as soon as interest rates begin to come down in the US, I expect the FDI into emerging markets, including India, to increase’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24564.50, up by 248.55 points or 1.02% after trading in a range of 24331.15 and 24592.20. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index. 

The top gainers on Nifty were TCS up by 7.01%, Wipro up by 5.53%, Infosys up by 3.87%, LTIMindtree up by 3.80% and Tech Mahindra up by 3.38%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.28%, Divi's Lab down by 0.86%, Hindalco down by 0.66%, BPCL down by 0.49% and Apollo Hospital Ent. down by 0.48% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Hang Seng advanced 461.05 points or 2.52% to 18,293.38, Jakarta Composite gained 30.04 points or 0.41% to 7,330.45, Straits Times rose 24.58 points or 0.7% to 3,499.64 and Shanghai Composite was up by 0.91 points or 0.03% to 2,971.30. On the flip side, KOSPI dropped 34.35 points or 1.2% to 2,857.00, Taiwan Weighted lost 473.1 points or 1.98% to 23,916.93 and Nikkei 225 was down by 1033.34 points or 2.51% to 41,190.68.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 31.89 points or 0.39% to 8,255.23, France’s CAC rose 59.36 points or 0.78% to 7,686.49 and Germany’s DAX was up by 57.82 points or 0.31% to 18,592.38.