Benchmarks remain in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks remained in green in morning deals, led by gains in Utilities, Metal and Energy stocks. Traders took some support with Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the budget seeks to strike a fine balance among several overriding priorities and will provide impetus to local manufacturing, boost employment and raise India's share in global growth. She added growth, employment, welfare spending, capital investments, and fiscal consolidation are given equal place. Some optimism also came as the latest data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) stating that sharp reduction in capital expenditure (capex) during election months and record-high dividend from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) led to a decrease in the central government’s fiscal deficit to 8.41 per cent of the full-year target for the April-June quarter (Q1) of 2024-25 (FY25), along with the most recent FY25 Budget figures. In the corresponding period of 2023-24 (FY24), fiscal deficit was 25.3 per cent of the full-year target. However, gains remain capped as the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended their selling as they sold equities worth Rs 3,462 crore on July 31. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red despite the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight after the U.S. Federal Reserve provided clear signals for a possible interest rate cut that investors much hoped for.  

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 81923.21, up by 181.87 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 81877.16 and 82129.49. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.18%, while Small cap index was up by 0.27%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.35%, Metal up by 1.30%, Energy up by 0.97%, Oil & Gas up by 0.93% and Power up by 0.88%, while Realty down by 0.80%, Telecom down by 0.27%, IT down by 0.13% and TECK down by 0.09% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid Corporation up by 2.84%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.14%, JSW Steel up by 1.09%, Nestle up by 1.05% and Adani Ports &SEZ up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.53%, Sun Pharma down by 0.99%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.66%, Infosys down by 0.65% and ITC down by 0.57% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said the Union Budget strikes a fine balance between growth, employment, and fiscal consolidation, and promotes cooperative federalism. The minister said the government is on track to achieve the pre-announced fiscal deficit target of 4.5 per cent by 2025-26.

The minister, who presented her seventh Union Budget, also said the economic document proposes unflinching support for cooperative federalism. She stated ‘I would like to underline that our unflinching commitment to cooperative federalism. The total resources proposed to be transferred to the states in 2024-25 are estimated at Rs 22.91 trillion. This actually entails an increase of Rs 2.49 trillion over 2023-24.’

She stated ‘This is the biggest ever allocation for capital expenditure and it shows increase of about 17 per cent over the RE and provisional actuals of the FY 2023-24.’ She added that during the Congress-led UPA era, the capex allocation was Rs 13.19 trillion between 2004-05 to 2013-14. Moreover, she said ‘Whereas during our tenure from 2014 to 2024, the allocation for capex has been Rs 43.82 trillion from 2014-15 to 2023-24.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25021.65, up by 70.50 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 25008.80 and 25078.30. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid Corporation up by 3.12%, ONGC up by 2.92%, Coal India up by 2.37%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.15% and Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.90%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.64%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.55%, Sun Pharma down by 1.07%, ITC down by 0.85% and Infosys down by 0.76% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 33.11 points or 0.19% to 17,311.49, Shanghai Composite weakened 6.61 points or 0.23% to 2,932.14, Straits Times fell 28.68 points or 0.83% to 3,427.26 and Nikkei 225 slipped 1038.94 points or 2.66% to 38,062.88.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted added 405.31 points or 1.83% to 22,604.66, Jakarta Composite gained 51.3 points or 0.71% to 7,307.06 and KOSPI increased 20.01 points or 0.72% to 2,790.70.