Sensex, Nifty trade flat in early deals after slightly positive start

Indian equity benchmarks made flat-to-positive start on Tuesday tracking overnight gains on Wall Street as well as broadly positive cues from Asian counterparts. Optimism about more interest rate cuts by the U.S. Fed next year is aiding market sentiment. Soon, Sensex and Nifty turned volatile and are trading flat in early deals amid traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of a market holiday on Wednesday for Christmas. Some support came in as retail inflation for farm workers and rural labourers dipped to 5.35 per cent and 5.47 per cent in November compared to 5.96 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively, in October this year. Traders took note of Saurabh Garg, secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s statement that India needs to leverage data and make data-driven decisions if it wants to achieve a higher rate of growth. 

On the sectoral front, sugar stocks are in focus with a private report that sugarcane yields in India are declining due to last year's drought and this year's excessive rains, which could reduce the country's sugar production below consumption levels for the first time in eight years. In stock specific development, HG Infra climbed as unit signs 185 MW/370 MWh battery energy storage deal.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 78451.22, down by 88.95 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 78397.79 and 78732.20. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.17%, while Small cap index was up by 0.04%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.64%, Energy up by 0.52%, IT up by 0.25%, Auto up by 0.24% and TECK up by 0.03%, while Metal down by 0.83%, Realty down by 0.55%, Telecom down by 0.38%, Consumer Durables down by 0.35% and Basic Materials down by 0.32% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.24%, TCS up by 0.99%, Reliance Industries up by 0.48%, Nestle up by 0.31% and Sun Pharma up by 0.31%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.92%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.61%, HDFC Bank down by 0.54%, Indusind Bank down by 0.50% and Zomato down by 0.49% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that the Centre and state governments are working on a new scheme to help farmers transport the farm produce to other states and markets. He added the contribution of the farm sector to the country's GDP is 18 per cent, and the government is working on many areas to further strengthen the sector.

He stressed the judicious use of natural resources and called for stopping the indiscriminate use of pesticides. He said ‘The need of the hour is to move towards natural farming, and we have to take this forward with full potential’. He added the launch of the river-linking project on December 25 will benefit the farmers, and called for the development of a technology to irrigate more with less water.

The minister stated that there is a need to take lab work to fields and urged the researchers not to be confined to the lab. He emphasised that information related to the agriculture sector should not be limited to English language only and should be published in different languages so that the distance between labs to land can be bridged.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23770.30, up by 16.85 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 23709.65 and 23798.10. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 1.34%, TCS up by 1.11%, Adani Enterprises up by 0.80%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.76% and Trent up by 0.69%. On the flip side, JSW Steel down by 1.13%, Tata Steel down by 0.96%, Shriram Finance down by 0.69%, Indusind Bank down by 0.68% and SBI Life Insurance down by 0.50% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Hang Seng surged 238.78 points or 1.19% to 20,121.91, Taiwan Weighted added 91 points or 0.39% to 23,195.54, Shanghai Composite strengthened 22.92 points or 0.68% to 3,374.18 and Straits Times rose 17.63 points or 0.47% to 3,769.96. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 slipped 112.69 points or 0.29% to 39,048.65, KOSPI fell 2.71 points or 0.11% to 2,439.30 and Jakarta Composite was down by 0.38 points or 0.01% to 7,096.07.