Bourses trade in green in early afternoon session

Key benchmark indices held their gains in early afternoon session even after weak cues from other Asian markets. Traders preferred to buy stocks ahead of monthly F&O expiry, which due on February 27. Some support came as domestic rating agency ICRA in its latest report has said that Indian companies are likely to clock 7-8 per cent revenue growth during the March quarter of the current fiscal year (Q4FY25), led by revival in rural demand and uptick in government spending. ICRA expects the private capital expenditure (capex) cycle to remain measured in view of the uncertainties around geopolitical developments and relatively subdued outlook on merchandise exports from India. On the global front, all Asian markets are trading lower despite People's Bank of China conducted one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) operations and the interest rate on MLF was kept unchanged. The central bank issued CNY 300 billion of one-year MLF at a rate of 2.0 percent. The interest rate was unchanged from the previous operation.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 74665.79, up by 211.38 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 74400.37 and 74785.08. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.30%, while Small cap index was down by 0.01%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.06%, Auto up by 0.67%, Consumer Durables up by 0.54%, Consumer discretionary up by 0.46% and FMCG was up by 0.41%, while Metal down by 1.42%, Oil & Gas down by 0.87%, Realty down by 0.78%, Basic Materials down by 0.75% and Energy was down by 0.73% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Zomato up by 3.21%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.19%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.53%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.71% and Adani Ports up by 1.48%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.48%, TCS down by 1.23%, Power Grid down by 1.12%, NTPC down by 0.97% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.92% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest data report on ‘the performance of the private corporate sector during the third quarter (Q3) of 2024-25’ has showed that the listed private non-financial companies logged 8.0 per cent (y-o-y) sales growth during Q3:2024-25 as compared with 5.4 per cent in the previous quarter and 5.5 per cent in the corresponding quarter a year ago. According to the report, sales growth (y-o-y) of 1,675 listed private manufacturing companies improved to 7.7 per cent during Q3:2024-25 from 3.3 per cent during the previous quarter, mainly driven by higher sales growth in automobiles, chemicals, food products and electrical machinery industries; sales revenue of petroleum, iron and steel, and cement industries, however, contracted on an annual basis.

RBI data report further stated that information technology (IT) companies recorded a rise of 6.8 per cent (y-o-y) in their sales in Q3 from 3.2 per cent a year ago, while Non-IT services companies recorded 11.5 per cent sales growth (y-o-y) during Q3:2024-25 over and above 12.9 per cent growth in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. On the expenditure front, manufacturing companies’ expenses on raw material rose by 6.3 per cent (y-o-y) during Q3:2024-25 in consonance with their sales growth, whereas their staff cost recorded a higher increase of 9.5 per cent; staff cost of IT and non-IT services companies increased by 5.0 per cent and 12.4 per cent, respectively.

Besides, staff cost to sales ratio for manufacturing, IT and non-IT services companies moderated sequentially and stood at 5.7 per cent, 47.9 per cent, and 10.3 per cent, respectively, during Q3:2024-25. Going further, listed non-financial companies’ operating profit margin improved sequentially by 50 basis points to 16.2 per cent during the latest quarter - the improvement was broad based. The report also noted that interest coverage ratio (ICR) of manufacturing companies moderated to 7.6 during Q3:2024-25 (7.9 in the previous quarter); ICR of IT sector remained very high (above 40) whereas that of non-IT services companies exceeded 2 (i.e., earnings before interest and tax being more than double of interest payments) after 32 quarters.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22577.70, up by 24.35 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 22516.45 and 22625.30. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.22%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.59%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.78%, Adani Enterprises up by 1.67% and Nestle up by 1.48%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.11%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 2.36%, Trent down by 1.52%, Sun Pharma down by 1.42% and SBI Life down by 1.26% were the top losers.

All Asian markets are trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 539.15 points or 1.41% to 38,237.79, Hang Seng declined 319.53 points or 1.37% to 23,022.08, Taiwan Weighted lost 279.59 points or 1.2% to 23,285.72, Jakarta Composite plunged 160.92 points or 2.38% to 6,588.68, Shanghai Composite weakened 30.52 points or 0.9% to 3,342.51, KOSPI dropped 14.98 points or 0.57% to 2,630.29 and Straits Times was down by 1.59 points or 0.04% to 3,926.16.