Bourses continue to trade with gains in early afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their trade in positive territory during early afternoon session amid some positive cues from other Asian markets. Investors overlooked the data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed that India’s wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation rose to 2.38% (provisional) in February, 2025, primarily due to increase in prices of manufacture of food products, food articles, other manufacturing, non-food articles and manufacture of textiles etc. This is higher than the WPI rate in January which stood at 2.31%. Sector wise, sugar stocks remained in limelight as National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) in its latest report said that India’s sugar production has declined by 16.13% to 23.71 million tonnes so far in the ongoing 2024-25 season, creating challenges for government policies which were formulated based on higher initial projections. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green as China unveiling a special action plan over the weekend to revive consumption and to boost the stock and real estate market.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 74124.24, up by 295.33 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 73796.06 and 74376.35. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.63%, while Small cap index was up by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.02%, Bankex up by 0.86%, Basic Materials up by 0.80%, Metal up by 0.75% and Utilities was up by 0.51%, while FMCG down by 0.41%, Oil & Gas down by 0.31%, Energy down by 0.23%, Telecom down by 0.14% and IT was down by 0.08% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 3.23%, Axis Bank up by 2.23%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.85%, ICICI Bank up by 1.84% and Indusind Bank up by 1.69%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 1.09%, Asian Paints down by 0.99%, Reliance Industries down by 0.91%, ITC down by 0.81% and TCS down by 0.69% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, commerce ministry's investigation arm Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has recommended anti-dumping duty of up to $20.87 per kilogram on import of a certain kind of vitamin, used for animal consumption, from China, the European Union (EU) and Switzerland for five years. The DGTR in its findings has concluded that imports of 'Vitamin A Palmitate' have significantly increased in absolute terms. 

Due to the dumping, the performance of domestic industry in terms of profit, cash profits and ROCE (Return on Capital Employed) has been adversely affected. The authority recommends imposition of anti-dumping duty on the imports for a period of five years. The recommended duty ranges between $0.87-20.87 per kg. The finance ministry will take the final decision to impose the duty. Piramal Pharma had filed a petition before the DGTR for imposition of the duty on the imports.

In a separate notification, the DGTR has also recommended anti-dumping duty of up to $358 per tonne on 'Insoluble Sulphur' exported from China and Japan for five years. The chemical is widely used in the manufacture of tyre, shoes, and all kinds of automobile rubber parts.  

Anti-dumping probes are conducted by countries to determine whether domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports. As a counter measure, they impose these duties under the multilateral regime of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO). The duty is aimed at ensuring fair trading practices and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers vis-a-vis foreign producers and exporters. India has already imposed anti-dumping duty on several products to tackle cheap imports from various countries, including China.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22480.95, up by 83.75 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 22353.15 and 22577.00. There were 32 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged. 

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI Life up by 3.51%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.45%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 3.00%, Trent up by 2.54% and Axis Bank up by 2.17%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 2.11%, Britannia down by 1.91%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.51%, Wipro down by 1.42% and Nestle down by 1.18% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 343.42 points or 0.92% to 37,396.52, Hang Seng advanced 209.16 points or 0.87% to 24,169.14, Taiwan Weighted added 150.58 points or 0.68% to 22,118.63, KOSPI increased 44.33 points or 1.7% to 2,610.69, Straits Times rose 25.42 points or 0.66% to 3,861.44 and Shanghai Composite was up by 4.2 points or 0.12% to 3,423.76. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 44.97 points or 0.69% to 6,470.66.