Sensex, Nifty trade in fine-fettle with gains around 2% in early delas

Indian equity benchmarks made an optimistic start on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced a 90-day pause on new ‘reciprocal tariffs’ on most countries. According to the White House executive orders, additional tariffs on India have been suspended until July 9 this year. Sensex and Nifty are trading in fine-fettle in early deals with gains around 2% each as investors preferred to buy stocks at reduced levels. Some support came as commerce ministry said that the country's goods and services exports have crossed $820 billion in 2024-25, marking a nearly 6 per cent increase over the previous fiscal year despite global economic uncertainties. The exports stood at $778 billion in 2023-24. Besides, India and Russia have agreed on six new strategic projects to boost bilateral investment during the 8th India-Russia Working Group session in New Delhi. Meanwhile, investors are keeping close eye on the upcoming Q4 earnings season for more directional cues.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed, following the broadly negative from Wall Street overnight, amid the ongoing concerns about rising global trade tensions, particularly between the U.S. and China. Traders also look to cash on the steep spike on Thursday after President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on new ‘reciprocal tariffs’.

Back home, aviation industry stocks are in focus as ICRA said that Indian airport operators are expected to see an 18-20 per cent topline year-on-year growth in this fiscal, driven by a sustained improvement in passenger traffic and tariff hike as well as ramp-up in non-aeronautical revenues. In stock specific development, Aurionpro Solutions traded higher as it announced the acquisition of Fintra Software to enhance its Transaction Banking offerings.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 75215.89, up by 1368.74 points or 1.85% after trading in a range of 74762.84 and 75279.45. There were 29 stocks advancing against 1 stock declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.74%, while Small cap index was up by 2.04%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 4.03%, Basic Materials up by 3.06%, Capital Goods up by 2.27%, Consumer Durables up by 2.26% and Industrials up by 2.20%, while there was no loser on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 5.35%, Tata Motors up by 4.12%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 3.04%, Sun Pharma up by 3.01% and HCL Technologies up by 2.94%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 0.83% was the sole loser.

Meanwhile, amid looming higher US reciprocal tariff threats, Moody's Analytics in its report titled 'APAC Outlook: U.S. Versus Them' has revised India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast to 6.1 per cent for 2025 from 6.4 per cent in its March baseline. It said the US is one of India's largest trading partners, so a 26 per cent tariff hovering over imports of Indian goods will heavily impede the trade balance. It said gems and jewellery, medical devices, and textile industries will be among the worst hit. 

Regardless, it expects overall growth to be relatively insulated from the shock since external demand makes up a relatively small portion of GDP. Given headline inflation has been easing at a healthy pace, it expects the Reserve Bank of India to lower interest rates, most likely in the form of 25-basis point cuts that take the policy rate to 5.75 per cent by the end of the year. This, paired with tax incentives announced earlier this year, should help boost the domestic economy and dampen the shock of the tariffs on overall growth relative to other vulnerable economies.

Moody's Analytics said uncertainty is palpable, with tumbling and volatile equity markets headlining financial market turbulence. It said the negative and pervasive impact of a sustained rise in uncertainty cannot be understated. Household and business sentiment is crumbling, and if the calamity continues, monetary policy easing that was supposed to characterise 2025 will lose some of its potency. Also, households won't want to spend more when the environment is so uncertain, regardless of stronger purchasing power, and businesses will hold back on additional investment as they navigate chaos. As tariffs increase the cost and complexity of trade, they weaken global growth prospects.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22870.10, up by 470.95 points or 2.10% after trading in a range of 22695.40 and 22874.45. There were 49 stocks advancing against 1 stock declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 5.20%, JSW Steel up by 4.98%, Hindalco up by 4.79%, Adani Enterprises up by 4.34% and Cipla up by 3.89%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 0.24% was the sole loser.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Taiwan Weighted surged 312.15 points or 1.64% to 19,312.18, Hang Seng rose 116.85 points or 0.56% to 20,798.63, Jakarta Composite gained 8.82 points or 0.14% to 6,262.84 and Shanghai Composite was up by 4.01 points or 0.12% to 3,227.65. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 slipped 1307.75 points or 3.78% to 33,301.25, Straits Times fell 75.72 points or 2.12% to 3,502.11 and KOSPI was down by 19.24 points or 0.79% to 2,425.82.