Indian markets carry gaining rally further in late morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks carried their gaining rally in late morning session as well, with Sensex and Nifty holding strong gains, aided by heavy buying at Utilities and Auto counters, despite negative cues from other Asian markets. Traders remained optimistic, as Jayant Chaudhary, Minister of State (I/C), for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and Minister of State for Education, Government of India, has said that the World is looking towards India and India presents a significant competitive advantage. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, even after Japan overall consumer price inflation softened in February largely due to government subsidies for energy but the increase in core inflation together with higher wage growth and services inflation put pressure on the Bank of Japan to lift key interest rates. The consumer price inflation logged 3.7 percent in February, down from 4.0 percent in January. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said that excluding fresh food and energy, inflation rose to 2.6 percent from 2.5 percent in the previous month. 

Back home, defence stocks were in focus as the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), on March 20, 2025, accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoNs) to eight capital acquisition proposals amounting to over Rs 54,000 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 76816.92, up by 468.86 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 76095.26 and 76946.04. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.89%, while Small cap index was up by 1.50%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.95%, Auto up by 1.36%, Industrials up by 1.26%, Oil & Gas up by 1.22% and PSU up by 1.19%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.20% and Metal down by 0.11% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 2.57%, NTPC up by 2.21%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.13%, Nestle up by 2.01% and Larsen & Toubro up by 2.00%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.59%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.02%, Eternal down by 0.89%, Indusind Bank down by 0.83% and Titan down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said that oil and gas companies will not face any new taxes like the windfall profits tax after the coming into effect of a new law that promises stability of fiscal regime. Parliament has passed the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2024 that provides policy stability to investors, decriminalises provisions and promotes ease of doing business.

The minister said ‘after this bill, it will be difficult to levy new taxes like windfall tax because somebody will sue us for failing to keep the promise of fiscal stability’. He said investors looking to invest in finding and producing oil and gas want fiscal stability, and new taxes that seek to take away gains made when prices are high, without compensating for low or no margins when rates are low, are often a deterrent. 

He further said India currently imports more than 85 per cent of its crude oil needs and about half of its natural gas requirement. He said ‘we have 42 billion tonnes of oil and oil equivalent reserves and a sedimentary basin spanning 3.5 million square kilometers and most of it is untapped.’ Further, he said there is an urgent and pressing need to increase domestic production of oil and gas to meet the rising demand for energy and reduce import dependence of the country. 

India imposed a windfall profit tax on July 1, 2022 joining a growing number of nations that tax super normal profits of energy companies. At that time, export duties of Rs 6 per litre ($12 per barrel) each were levied on petrol and ATF and Rs 13 a litre ($26 a barrel) on diesel. A Rs 23,250 per tonne ($40 per barrel) windfall profit tax on domestic crude production was also levied. The tax rates were reviewed every fortnight based on average oil prices in the previous two weeks. The levy was scrapped in December last year after 30 months.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23336.25, up by 145.60 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 23132.80 and 23370.85. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 2.65%, Coal India up by 2.59%, SBI Life Insurance up by 2.37%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.19% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.18%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.71%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.06%, Trent down by 0.97%, Indusind Bank down by 0.94% and Hindalco down by 0.74% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 581.24 points or 2.46% to 23,638.71, Jakarta Composite plunged 136.52 points or 2.19% to 6,245.15, Shanghai Composite weakened 45.72 points or 1.36% to 3,363.23, Straits Times fell 2.64 points or 0.07% to 3,927.85, Nikkei 225 slipped 24.94 points or 0.07% to 37,726.94 and Taiwan Weighted lost 168.16 points or 0.76% to 22,209.10, while KOSPI increased 3.13 points or 0.12% to 2,640.23.