Sensex, Nifty trade higher with marginal gains in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made a positive start on Wednesday, following the broadly optimistic cues from Wall Street overnight as well as firm trade in Asian counterparts, amid easing trade war tensions after top U.S. and Chinese officials agreed upon a ‘framework’ to move forward on trade, following two days of high-level talks in London. The framework will first need to be approved by leaders in Washington and Beijing. Sensex and Nifty are trading higher with marginal gains in early deals supported by buying in Oil & Gas, Energy and Auto stocks.

Some support came as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that India and the 27-nation EU bloc are really very near to concluding talks for the proposed free trade agreement, with only a few issues left to be resolved. However, upside remained capped as World Bank pegged India’s economic growth projection at a lower level of 6.3 per cent for 2025-26 due to pressure on exports emanating from global uncertainties.

On the sectoral front, sugar stocks remained in focus as trade body AISTA said India exported 5.16 lakh tonnes of sugar till June 6 of the ongoing 2024-25 marketing year with maximum shipments of 1,18,553 tonnes to Somalia. In stock specific development, share price of Sula Vineyards and GM Breweries saw a significant uptick amid reports that the Maharashtra government hiked excise duties on liquor, while beer and wine have been exempted from this excise duty hike.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 82484.45, up by 92.73 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 82308.91 and 82548.01. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.32%, while Small cap index was up by 0.38%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.22%, Energy up by 1.98%, Auto up by 0.67%, Telecom up by 0.65% and Metal up by 0.51%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.23%, Bankex down by 0.17%, FMCG down by 0.12%, IT down by 0.10% and TECK down by 0.09% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 1.66%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.21%, Eternal up by 0.76%, NTPC up by 0.40% and ICICI Bank up by 0.38%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.71%, Power Grid down by 0.56%, Bharat Electronics down by 0.54%, HDFC Bank down by 0.47% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.46% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, World Bank has retained its India's economic growth projection at a lower level of 6.3 per cent for 2025-26 due to pressure on exports emanating from global uncertainties, though the country will remain the fastest growing major global economy. In April, the World Bank had lowered India's growth projection for 2025-26 to 6.3 per cent from its January forecast of 6.7 per cent. According to the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects report, heightened trade tensions and policy uncertainty are expected to drive global growth down this year to its slowest pace since 2008 outside of outright global recessions.

It noted that the global growth has been projected to slow to 2.3 per cent in 2025, nearly half a percentage point lower than the rate that had been expected at the start of the year. The turmoil has resulted in growth forecasts being cut in nearly 70 per cent of all economies - across all regions and income groups. After unexpectedly weak growth of 6 per cent in 2024, activity in South Asia (SAR) is decelerating amid rising global trade barriers, heightened policy uncertainty, and financial market volatility.

Regarding India, the report said the growth moderated in FY2024-25 (April 2024 to March 2025), partly reflecting a deceleration in industrial output growth. However, growth in construction and services activity remained steady, and agricultural output recovered from severe drought conditions, supported by resilient demand in rural areas. Nevertheless, the forecast for growth in FY2025-26 has been downgraded by 0.4 percentage point relative to January projections, with exports dampened by weaker activity in key trading partners and rising global trade barriers.

World Bank expects China to grow at 4.5 per cent in 2025 and 4 per cent next year. The report said a global recession is not expected. Nevertheless, if forecasts for the next two years materialize, average global growth in the first seven years of the 2020s will be the slowest of any decade since the 1960s. It also said global growth could rebound faster than expected if major economies are able to mitigate trade tensions - which would reduce overall policy uncertainty and financial volatility.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25136.45, up by 32.20 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 25081.30 and 25150.40. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 1.71%, ONGC up by 1.63%, Reliance Industries up by 1.60%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.54% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.49%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.64%, JIO Financial Services down by 0.64%, Apollo Hospital down by 0.57%, SBI Life Insurance down by 0.53% and Shriram Finance down by 0.52% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Hang Seng jumped 224.64 points or 0.93% to 24,387.51, Taiwan Weighted surged 158.68 points or 0.71% to 22,400.82, Nikkei 225 rose 151.25 points or 0.4% to 38,362.76, KOSPI increased 24.55 points or 0.85% to 2,896.40 and Shanghai Composite was up by 18.18 points or 0.53% to 3,403.00. On the other hand, Jakarta Composite slipped 34.9 points or 0.48% to 7,195.85 and Straits Times was down by 21.92 points or 0.56% to 3,911.88.