Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Monday’s trading session in a positive terrain, as market participants preferred to buy stock at lowest levels. After making slightly negative start, soon index slipped into deep red, amid continuous foreign fund outflows. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,117.50 crore on Friday, according to exchange data. Some concern also came with Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in its latest report stating that as many as 449 infrastructure projects, each entailing an investment of Rs 150 crore or above, were hit by cost overrun of more than Rs 5.01 lakh crore in March 2024. Out of 1,873 projects, 449 reported cost overrun and 779 projects were delayed.
However, in afternoon session, index cut all of its losses to trade above its neutral line, as traders got some encouragement with India’s G20 Sherpa and former CEO of Niti Aayog Amitabh Kant projecting that the country is all set to overtake Japan as 4th largest economy in the world by 2025. Traders got support as think tank GTRI said that India's exports to the UAE increased by 18.25 per cent to $35.63 billion in 2023-24 as against $30.13 billion in 2018-19, while imports surged 61.21 per cent, from $29.79 billion in FY2019 to $48.02 billion in the last fiscal. Overall, India ranked 17th globally in exports, with a 1.8 per cent share in world trade. Finally, index ended in positive terrain with gains of 48.85 points.