Sensex, Nifty off day’s highs in early noon deals

Trimming some of their gains, Indian equity benchmarks came off their intraday high points in early afternoon session, however managed to trade in green, amid easing WPI inflation along with positive cues from other Asian markets. The government data showed that India’s wholesale inflation eased further to 0.85% in April on an annual basis as against a four-month low of 2.05% in March. Primary articles inflation in April contracted to 1.44% from a growth of 0.76% in March. Inflation rate for fuel and power contracted 2.18% in April as against a growth of 0.20% in March.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as producer prices in Japan were up 0.2 percent on month in April, slowing from 0.4 percent in March. On a yearly basis, producer prices were up 4.0 percent - slowing from the upwardly revised 4.3 percent increase in the previous month. Export prices were down 0.3 percent on month and 0.4 percent on year, while import prices sank 0.6 percent on month and 2.6 percent on year.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 81302.56, up by 154.34 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 81184.89 and 81691.87. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.94%, while Small cap index was up by 1.48%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.12%, Industrials up by 1.69%, Capital Goods up by 1.56%, Realty up by 1.46% and Oil & Gas up by 1.19%, while Bankex down by 0.27% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.95%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.53%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.46%, Eternal up by 1.32% and Indusind Bank up by 1.26%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.82%, Asian Paints down by 1.52%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.89%, Power Grid down by 0.79% and ICICI Bank down by 0.44% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India has only reserved its right under World Trade Organization (WTO) norms to impose retaliatory duties on certain American products over the US' steel and aluminum tariffs and it may choose to resolve the issue through the ongoing bilateral trade agreement (BTA) negotiations between the two countries. Earlier also a similar notification has been issued to the WTO by India against the European Union over EU's steel safeguard measure of 2019 and 2021, but it has not been implemented to date.

Accordingly, India's current notification to WTO Council for Trade in Goods against US' steel and aluminium tariffs only reserves India's right under the Agreement on Safeguards to retaliate at any future date. However, it is for India to decide whether to effectuate these proposed retaliation after 30 days of the notification or later or resolve it as part of ongoing BTA negotiations. 

The two countries are negotiating the pact to boost two-way commerce to $500 billion by 2030 from the present $191 billion. In June 2019, India imposed higher tariffs on 28 US products after the US removed India from its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and continued its 25 per cent and 10 per cent tariffs on certain steel and aluminium products. That action, which covered about $240 million in trade value, marked India's first use of WTO-sanctioned retaliation.  However, the duties were withdrawn in September 2023, following the decision of both countries to resolve seven WTO disputes.

That time also, the US had initially imposed additional duties on certain steel (25 per cent) and aluminium (10 per cent) products in March 2018. On May 18, 2018, India notified WTO Council for Trade in Goods of India's proposed suspension of concessions. This notification reserved India's right to effectuate the proposed suspension, however, it was implemented by India after a year, in June 2019.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24655.50, up by 77.15 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 24581.75 and 24767.55. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 4.02%, Bharat Electronics up by 2.52%, Shriram Finance up by 2.12%, Hindalco up by 2.03% and ONGC up by 1.88%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.86%, Asian Paints down by 1.57%, Cipla down by 1.38%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.89% and Power Grid down by 0.80% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng advanced 449.81 points or 1.95% to 23,558.08, Jakarta Composite gained 146.68 points or 2.15% to 6,979.48, Shanghai Composite strengthened 27.22 points or 0.81% to 3,402.09, KOSPI increased 32.15 points or 1.22% to 2,640.57 and Taiwan Weighted added 452.73 points or 2.08% to 21,782.87, while Straits Times fell 12.5 points or 0.32% to 3,868.55 and Nikkei 225 slipped 55.13 points or 0.14% to 38,128.13.