Key gauges continue to trade higher in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade higher in morning deals, powered by a rally in TECK and IT stocks and firm trends in the US equities after the Federal Reserve maintained its rate cut projections for this year. Traders took support as Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal proposed that India and the four-nation bloc Mercosur can explore signing bilateral free-trade agreements. His statement assumes significance as the efforts to expand the scope of the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between India and the Mercosur trade bloc, including Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, have not made headway. He said expanding the preferential trade agreement with the Mercosur nations is key for India to increase its trade in the South American region. Traders overlooked exchange data showed Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,096.50 crore on Wednesday after a day's breather. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green after the U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady, as widely expected, and signaled the possibility of two rate cuts by the end of the year, given increased uncertainty around the economic outlook.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 75896.24, up by 447.19 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 75684.58 and 76013.82. There were 23 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.48%, while Small cap index was up by 0.45%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were TECK up by 1.54%, IT up by 1.38%, Telecom up by 0.97%, Auto up by 0.89% and FMCG up by 0.78%, while Industrials down by 0.38%, Capital Goods down by 0.27% and Power down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan Company up by 2.38%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.23%, TCS up by 1.85%, HCL Technologies up by 1.81% and Infosys up by 1.49%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 1.33%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.67%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.57%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.37% and Tata Steel down by 0.25% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Crisil Ratings has said that the Indian FMCG sector is expected to witness a mild revenue rebound of 100 to 200 basis points to 6-8 per cent in fiscal 2026 owed to a gradual recovery in urban and steady rural demand, while in ongoing 2024-25 fiscal the sector is expected to have a modest revenue growth 5-6 per cent as the volume rises 4-6 per cent. It expects another 2 per cent revenue uptick to come from realisations as FMCG companies partly pass on the impact of inflation in key categories such as soaps, biscuits, coffee, hair oil and tea, while the pricing action will be driven by elevated prices of key inputs such as palm oil -- a key input for all three segments - F&B, personal care and home care -- coffee, copra and wheat. Crisil expects credit profiles of FMCG companies to remain stable with operating profitability to stay flat but healthy at 20-21 per cent in fiscal 2026.

Crisil, on the demand growth prospect, expects a modest recovery in volume as moderating food inflation, easing interest rates and tax relief measures announced in the Union Budget for the next fiscal will encourage urban demand, while continuous allocation to welfare schemes and a hike in minimum support prices will nurture demand growth in Rural areas. It has noted that traditional FMCG companies also have had to contend with rising competition, while the regional and local companies have been gaining with consumers downtrading to lower-priced brands. Additionally, the rising preference for digital channels has opened distribution avenues on a much larger scale for direct-to-consumer (D2C) companies.

The rating agency highlighted that the urban markets accounts for about 60 per cent of revenue, while rural market accounts for the rest. It added that nearly half of the sector's revenue comes from the food and beverages category, while the personal care and home care category accounts for a quarter each. It also added that high food inflation, elevated interest rates and sluggish wage growth impacted urban consumption across segments in fiscal 2025, with personal care and certain F&B sections taking a bigger hit. However, rural volume has recovered and outpaced urban in the past few quarters after another spell of adequate monsoon. Crisil also noted that input price, monsoon and utilisation of higher disposable incomes by households are the important factors to be watched for in upcoming times.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23049.65, up by 142.05 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 22973.95 and 23071.10. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan Company up by 2.43%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.16%, TCS up by 1.99%, Eicher Motors up by 1.71% and HCL Technologies up by 1.64%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 1.05%, Trent down by 1.03%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.68%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.52% and Apollo Hospital down by 0.48% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; KOSPI increased 7.93 points or 0.3% to 2,636.55, Straits Times rose 21.79 points or 0.56% to 3,930.10, Jakarta Composite gained 54.33 points or 0.86% to 6,365.99 and Taiwan Weighted added 384.15 points or 1.75% to 22,344.98.

On the flip side, Hang Seng declined 293.42 points or 1.2% to 24,477.72 and Shanghai Composite weakened 2.27 points or 0.07% to 3,424.16.