Sensex, Nifty wipe out opening losses to trade higher in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made a slightly negative start on Friday, amid mixed global cues and after U.S. President Donald Trump said India will face reciprocal tariffs starting April 02, a move likely to hurt India's exports of agricultural and pharmaceutical goods. However, soon Sensex and Nifty wiped out losses and entered into green terrain in early deals as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net buyers. The Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 3,239.14 crore on March 20. Some optimism came as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that India's services exports are registering healthy growth rates and the sector should aspire to reach $450 billion in exports, overtaking merchandise shipments, in the next financial year.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, as lingering concerns over tariffs and the health of the global economy continue to hurt market sentiment. On the sectoral front, IT stocks are trading under pressure after Accenture said changes in how the new Trump administration approaches spending is adding a new level of uncertainty for the company. In stock specific development, RailTel Corporation of India surged on winning a work order worth Rs 16.89 crore from the Ministry of Defence.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 76520.30, up by 172.24 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 76095.26 and 76616.38. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.93%, while Small cap index was up by 1.44%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.34%, Healthcare up by 1.27%, Industrials up by 1.14%, Utilities up by 1.12% and Telecom up by 1.06%, while TECK down by 0.05% and IT down by 0.03% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 2.88%, Sun Pharma up by 1.58%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.19%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.09% and NTPC up by 1.02%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.03%, Titan Company down by 0.53%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.53%, Zomato down by 0.51% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.32% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India's services exports are registering healthy growth rates and the sector should aspire to reach $450 billion in exports, overtaking merchandise shipments, in the next financial year. He added the goods trade is facing headwinds in the current global situation. He said the services sector should be targeting $450 billion in exports in 2025-26 and about $385-390 billion this fiscal.

In 2023-24, the services exports stood at $341 billion, an increase of 4.85 per cent over the previous year. In April-February 2024-25, the services exports increased 14.1 per cent to $354.9 billion. On the other hand, goods exports contracted 3.1 per cent year-on-year to $437 billion in 2023-24. This year in April-February, the goods exports were up 0.06 per cent at $395.6 billion.

The minister also said that achieving 15-18 per cent growth in services exports is feasible as newer technologies get introduced and a greater number of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) of multinational companies open up in the country. He said at last count the number of GCCs operating in India hit 1,650. He said that while information technology and information technology-enabled services account for $200 billion of total services exports, other growth areas for services like tourism, accounting and financial services are coming back in a big way.

However, he said the IT and ITeS will have to remain at the forefront. He said because of the learnings during Covid while delivering services remotely, the complaints over the non-availability of enough H1B visas are hardly heard. The minister said he would still prefer that more and more services be delivered from remote locations and not from client locations as it would add to the competitiveness of the services by reducing costs. Another benefit of delivery from home would be that salaries are paid in India. Taxes on salaries will also be collected in India and will boost the economy.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23257.80, up by 67.15 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 23132.80 and 23276.70. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 2.90%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.82%, Sun Pharma up by 1.62%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.20% and ONGC up by 1.15%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.11%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.57%, Titan Company down by 0.57%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.52% and Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.36% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Hang Seng declined 483.98 points or 2% to 23,735.97, Jakarta Composite plunged 132.31 points or 2.07% to 6,249.36, Taiwan Weighted lost 103.99 points or 0.46% to 22,273.27 and Shanghai Composite weakened 31.99 points or 0.95% to 3,376.96. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 surged 180.06 points or 0.48% to 37,931.94, KOSPI increased 3.86 points or 0.15% to 2,640.96 and Straits Times was up by 2.33 points or 0.06% to 3,932.82.