Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks finished Monday's trading session in positive territory ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th U.S. president. After making a cautious start, soon domestic indices extended their gains to trade near day’s high point, led by Kotak Mahindra Bank's strong Q3 performance. The bank's notable growth in loans and deposits helped to boost investors’ sentiment.

Some of the important factors in today’s trade:

IMF retains India's GDP forecast for fiscal 2026, 2027: Traders took some support as International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its World Economic Outlook report has retained India's growth forecast at 6.5 per cent for fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027. 

Govt targets $250 billion engineering export by 2030: Sentiments got boost as Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal has said the government's target of $1 trillion export includes $250 billion from the engineering sector. The government has set a target to achieve $1 trillion export from India by 2030. 

India's economic growth poised to rebound: Traders were positive, as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) economists in their latest assessment of the economy said that the second half of the current fiscal year would result in faster economic growth than a relatively circumspect first half, boosted by a visible demand rebound.

Global front: European markets were trading higher. Most of the Asian markets ended in green, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, on renewed optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

The BSE Sensex ended at 77073.44, up by 454.11 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 76584.84 and 77318.94. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.66%, while Small cap index was up by 0.82%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.18%, Bankex up by 2.03%, PSU up by 1.53%, Power up by 1.39% and Utilities up by 1.17%, while Auto down by 0.50%, Consumer discretionary down by 0.26% and FMCG down by 0.08% were the few losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 9.12%, Bajaj Finance up by 3.48%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.27%, NTPC up by 2.54% and SBI up by 1.93%. On the flip side, Zomato down by 7.26%, Adani Ports & Special down by 1.26%, TCS down by 1.16%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.99% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.81% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in its survey report has said that even though geopolitical fault lines have disrupted global supply chains and have posed serious challenges to global growth, India has emerged as a bright spot amid this challenging global backdrop. The sound economic policies initiated by the Government helped revive the economy with emphasis on public capex-led growth.

This pan-India survey is an ongoing initiative, which would be completed for 500 firms by the first week of February. The interim results are based on a sample of 300 firms spread across all industry sizes (Large, Medium and Small). The industry survey was conducted to assess the pickup in private-sector investments, employment in the private sector and growth in wages in the private sector.

Early results revealed that about 97 per cent of the sample firms are likely to increase employment in both 2024-25 and 2025-26. Besides, majority of the firms surveyed indicated that it takes anywhere between 1 to 6 months to fill in vacancies of Senior management, Management/ Supervisory level, while regular and contractual workers take less time to fill in a vacant position indicating the need to fill the availability of skilled staff at the higher level in sample firms.

The CNX Nifty ended at 23344.75, up by 141.55 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 23170.65 and 23391.10. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 9.06%, Wipro up by 6.54%, Bajaj Finance up by 3.42%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.35% and NTPC up by 2.81%. On the flip side, SBI Life Insurance Company down by 2.87%, Trent down by 2.20%, Shriram Finance down by 1.92%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.34% and Adani Ports & Special down by 1.29% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading lower; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 25.92 points or 0.30% to 8,531.14, France’s CAC gained 18.98 points or 0.25% to 7,728.73 and Germany’s DAX was up by 9.54 points or 0.05% to 20,912.93. 

Asian markets settled mostly higher on Monday tracking Wall Street gains last Friday on optimism over the health of the US economy and Fed’s interest rate path. US industrial production increased by much more than expected in December while US single-family homebuilding rose to a 10-month high, separate reports showed. Although some gains were limited by investors’ cautious mood ahead of US President elect Donald Trump's inauguration later in the day, anticipating insights into his administration’s policies and potential signals on future interest rates. Japanese shares rallied, while the yen held near a one-month high amid expectations that the Bank of Japan might raise interest rates at its upcoming policy meeting. Moreover, government data showed Japan's core machinery orders rose 3.4% in November, exceeded expectations for a decline of 0.7% following the 2.1% increase in October. Chinese shares gained followed by news of the phone call between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump last week, spurring expectations that Sino-US relations will improve under the incoming US President. Meanwhile the PBoC maintained its one- and five-year Loan Prime Rates at 3.10% and 3.60%, respectively.