Bourses trade near record high levels in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets traded near record high levels in late afternoon session as investors continued to hunt for fundamentally strong stocks. Healthy buying was witnessed in Metal sector stocks. Investors continued to take support as Credit rating agency, S&P Global Ratings in its latest report ‘the economic outlook of Asia Pacific’ has retained India's growth forecast at 6.8 per cent for the current fiscal and for the fiscal 2025-26 at 6.9 per cent. The rating agency is expecting the RBI to start cutting interest rates in its October monetary policy review. According to it, solid growth in India will allow the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to focus on bringing inflation in line with its target. On the global front, All Asian markets were trading higher after a slew of stimulus measures from China aimed at shoring up economic growth spurred investor appetite for riskier assets. European markets were trading higher amid The People's Bank of China said it would cut the reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage points in the near future.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 85055.94, up by 127.33 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 84716.07 and 85116.90. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.19%, while Small cap index was up by 0.03%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.95%, Power up by 1.22%, Utilities up by 1.18%, Basic Materials up by 1.00% and Oil & Gas was up by 0.89%, while FMCG down by 0.68%, Telecom down by 0.31%, Consumer Durables down by 0.22%, Realty down by 0.16% and Bankex was down by 0.12% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.87%, Power Grid up by 2.61%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.03%, HCL Tech up by 1.47% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.08%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.11%, Nestle down by 1.84%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.67%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.29% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.88% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the commerce ministry has said that the next meeting of the Supply Chain Council, set up under an agreement of the 14-member IPEF, will be held in December. The IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity) bloc was launched jointly by the US and other partner countries of the Indo-Pacific region on May 23, 2022, in Tokyo. Together, they account for 40 per cent of the world's economic output and 28 per cent of trade.

The framework is structured around four pillars relating to trade, supply chains, clean economy and fair economy. India has joined all the pillars except the trade. Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the US, and Vietnam are members of the bloc. The Supply Chain Resilience Agreement came into effect on February 24. It seeks to strengthen supply chains through engagement among the partner countries. Under this agreement, three institutional bodies have been created - Supply Chain Council (SCC), Crisis Response Network (CRN) and the Labour Rights Advisory Board (LRAB) - with specific functions to achieve the objectives of the pact. 

The first meeting of the Supply Chain Council was held in Washington DC on September 12. While the US is the Chair, India is the vice Chair of the council. In the first meeting, the council established three action plan teams in three sectors - Semiconductors; Critical Minerals with a focus on batteries; and Chemicals. The ministry said that it has also been principally agreed by the partner countries to establish another action plan team related to the healthcare/pharma sector. These teams will commence work shortly to prepare its recommendations for the Council on possible collaborative and co-operative efforts among the partner countries for bringing in resilience in the supply chain pertaining to those specific critical sectors and key goods.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25973.35, up by 34.30 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 25886.85 and 25993.40. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 4.74%, Hindalco up by 3.73%, Power Grid up by 2.58%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.91% and ONGC up by 1.83%. On the flip side, SBI Life down by 3.31%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.10%, Grasim Industries down by 2.02%, Nestle down by 1.84% and HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.62% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher; Hang Seng advanced 753.45 points or 3.97% to 19,000.56, Nikkei 225 surged 216.68 points or 0.57% to 37,940.59, Taiwan Weighted added 146.25 points or 0.65% to 22,431.78, Shanghai Composite strengthened 114.21 points or 3.99% to 2,863.13, KOSPI increased 29.67 points or 1.13% to 2,631.68, Jakarta Composite gained 3.99 points or 0.05% to 7,779.72 and Straits Times was up by 1.33 points or 0.04% to 3,639.87.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 29.74 points or 0.36% to 8,289.45, France’s CAC rose 114.12 points or 1.52% to 7,622.20 and Germany’s DAX was up by 137.05 points or 0.73% to 18,983.84.