Bourses continue gaining momentum in early afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their gaining momentum in early afternoon session ahead of India’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, which due on later in a day. Traders got support as inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) in India eased to 2.05% in March from 2.38% in February, mainly on account of fall in prices of crude petroleum & natural gas, non-food articles and food articles. Meanwhile, commerce and industry ministry will allocate a major part of the second Rs 10,000 crore Fund of Funds Scheme (FFS) for startups to budding entrepreneurs in sectors such as new-age technology, artificial intelligence, and machine building.  On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green as Japan's industrial production rebounded in February but at a slower than initially estimated pace. Industrial production grew 2.3% month-on-month in February, reversing January's 1.1% decline. The growth rate for February was revised down from 2.5%.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 76815.93, up by 1658.67 points or 2.21% after trading in a range of 76435.07 and 76907.63. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 2.13%, while Small cap index was up by 2.72%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 4.24%, Industrials up by 3.34%, Auto up by 3.31%, Capital Goods up by 3.29% and Utilities was up by 2.76%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 6.69%, Adani Ports up by 4.54%, Tata Motors up by 4.50%, Larsen & Toubro up by 4.31% and Axis Bank up by 3.83%. On the flip side, ITC down by 0.12% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.07% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, Moody's Ratings in its latest report has said that uncertainties around the US trade policy will undermine business confidence and consumer sentiment, adversely impacting growth in Asian nations, including India. US President Donald Trump has postponed by three months the imposition of reciprocal tariffs, with the exception of China on whom a 125 per cent tariff has been slapped. However, a 10 per cent additional duty on exports to the US will continue. Moody's Analytics, another Moody's firm, had last week cut India's growth forecast for the 2025 calendar year to 6.1 per cent in 2025 from 6.4 per cent projected in February. 

Moody's Ratings Senior Vice President, Credit Strategy & Guidance, Nicky Dang has said that an escalation of US-Sino tensions and the spillover effects from a slowdown in China pose significant downside risks to the (Asian) region's growth prospects. She said economies with large domestic markets, such as India, may benefit from companies seeking access to these markets but any major shift in investment flows would occur over several years. 

Dang said the tariff pause mitigates the negative impact of the additional tariffs on the region's trade and growth. However, economies in the region still face considerable downside risk due to an additional 10 per cent universal tariffs and their high direct and indirect exposures to the US. Furthermore, the additional tariffs on Chinese exports, which were not included in the pause, exert further pressure on China's growth. She added that the tariff pause does not reverse the trend of de-globalisation but increases trade policy uncertainty, as the Trump administration's goal of reshoring manufacturing supply chains to the US remains unchanged.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23336.60, up by 508.05 points or 2.23% after trading in a range of 23207.00 and 23368.35. There were 49 stocks advancing against 1 stock declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 6.54%, Shriram Finance up by 4.48%, Tata Motors up by 4.47%, Adani Ports up by 4.45% and Larsen & Toubro up by 4.36%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.05% was the only loser.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted added 344.58 points or 1.74% to 19,857.67, Nikkei 225 surged 285.18 points or 0.83% to 34,267.54, Jakarta Composite gained 78.33 points or 1.22% to 6,446.85, Straits Times rose 69.27 points or 1.91% to 3,618.18 and KOSPI increased 21.52 points or 0.87% to 2,477.41, Shanghai Composite weakened 3.11 points or 0.1% to 3,259.70 and Hang Seng was down by 26.17 points or 0.12% to 21,391.23.