Sensex, Nifty wipe out opening losses to trade in green in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made a negative start on Wednesday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight as well as mixed cues from Asian counterparts, amid concerns about the escalating tensions in the Middle East that fueled fresh speculation that the U.S. is on the verge of joining Israel's attack on Iran. Traders are also cautious ahead of the U.S. Fed's interest-rate decision. Sensex and Nifty soon wiped out their losses to enter into green terrain and are trading higher with decent gains in early deals on account of healthy buying in Auto and Realty counters. Some support came with report that India's export trajectory from 2010 to 2023 has shown a consistent and steady upward trend, reflecting the resilience and dynamism of its trade sector.

On the sectoral front, Gems and Jewellery stocks are in focus as Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) data showed that the overall gems and jewellery exports declined 15.81 percent to $2,263.42 million (Rs 19,260.81 crore) in May compared to the same period of the previous year following tariff announcement by the US. In stock specific development, Mahindra & Mahindra traded higher after it received regulatory approval for its proposed acquisition of a controlling stake in SML Isuzu.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 81797.95, up by 214.65 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 81304.10 and 81858.97. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.31%, while Small cap index was up by 0.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.31%, Realty up by 1.09%, Consumer Discretionary up by 0.94%, Consumer Durables up by 0.71% and Telecom up by 0.47%, while Utilities down by 0.13% and Power down by 0.07% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.10%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.02%, Trent up by 1.15%, Titan Company up by 1.04% and Ultratech Cement up by 0.65%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.91%, NTPC down by 0.54%, Power Grid down by 0.49%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.41% and Infosys down by 0.14% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Indian government, V Anantha Nageswaran, has said the country needs to prioritise areas like manufacturing, education, and employment generation to become a developed nation by 2047 and become indispensable like China. He said that in the next couple of decades there will be a unpredictable, volatile and dangerous geo-political environment in the world and the geo-economic is going to be uncertain. He said so, the priority areas for India in the next 20-25 years should be education, skilling, good mental and physical health of the population, energy affordability and transition, rise of manufacturing, food security, increasing agriculture productivity, generating employment and increasing the rate of investments.

He has said that the country was able to double its initial goal of generating 8 million jobs per year in the last two years, but a large percentage of its population was facing health problems like obesity and mental distress, including suicidal tendencies. He said that the health issues can be addressed by being careful about what we eat, reducing screen time, having outdoor activities and increasing family connection. He said ‘So, it is not the job of the governments in the country alone, but each of us also have a role to play in ensuring the demographic dividend is realised’.

On the issue of energy transition, he said that the developed nations of the world achieved that status by depending on non-renewable sources of energy like oil and coal, but now want other nations to move away from the same in the name of global warming and climate change. But, he said everything we use needs more energy and at the same time we cannot use the cheaper forms of energy like coal due to pollution concerns. On the other hand, renewable sources of energy like solar and wind are intermittent and the more we introduce them into the power grid, we cannot predict what will happen. He contended ‘The grids are not ready for the intermittency’.

The CEA also said that increasing dependency on solar panels and electric vehicles will lead to the country's dependence on China -- a source of components for these. He said that just like China has made itself indispensable, India too should try to achieve the same. On the investment aspect, he said that global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was coming down, but India was not likely to be affected as it is a top destination for FDI. With regard to increasing manufacturing, he said that state governments need to change their rules to facilitate spreading of factories and industrial units, instead of concentrating them in urban centres. He said agricultural productivity can be improved by increasing irrigation coverage and land consolidation.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24927.15, up by 73.75 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 24776.90 and 24947.55. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 5.35%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.00%, Eicher Motors up by 1.99%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.92% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.51%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.88%, Power Grid down by 0.57%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.50%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.44% and NTPC down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Nikkei 225 surged 309.74 points or 0.8% to 38,846.48, Taiwan Weighted added 92.8 points or 0.42% to 22,304.39 and KOSPI increased 16.78 points or 0.57% to 2,967.08. On the other hand, Hang Seng declined 281.65 points or 1.19% to 23,698.65, Jakarta Composite plunged 31.86 points or 0.45% to 7,123.99, Straits Times fell 12.87 points or 0.33% to 3,917.77 and Shanghai Composite was down by 6.93 points or 0.21% to 3,380.47.