Post Session: Quick Review

After making cautious start, Indian equities held the gains till the end of the session, with the Sensex and the Nifty ending above their crucial 73,900 and 22,450 levels. Investors turned their focus towards fifth phase of voting of Lok Sabha Election 2024 in Mumbai. Buying was witnessed in Metal sector’s stocks. As for broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index ended with gains of over a percent.

Markets made slightly positive start, soon turned volatile following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight and weakness in Asian counterparts, as traders pondered the near term US monetary policy path after Federal Reserve officials suggested that interest rates may need to stay higher for longer even as inflation shows early signs of easing. However, markets managed to gain traction, as traders took some support with Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ashwini Kumar’s statement that the country's merchandise exports are expected to increase about $60-70 billion to $500 billion by the end of FY25 on account of gradual improvement in global demand. In 2023-24, exports dipped over 3 per cent to $437.1 billion. He also said the country's services exports are also likely to reach $390-400 billion this fiscal.  In afternoon session, indices maintained their gains, as sentiments were positive after private report said India registered ‘very robust’ economic growth performance and has become an alternative investment destination for many western companies as ‘less and less’ foreign investment is going into China. Besides, support came in as Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) member Sanjeev Sanyal said India will be a $4 trillion economy in 2024-25 and surpass Japan by early next fiscal to become the world's fourth largest economy. Markets remained higher in late afternoon session. Traders took note of Credit rating agency, Crisil in its latest outlook report ‘Imports widen trade deficit’ has said that the near-term challenge to India’s exports owing to the geopolitical uncertainties seems to have been limited so far but remains a key monitorable.

On the global front, European markets were trading lower dragged by declines in technology and industrials stocks, with investors looking forward to euro zone inflation data for some clarity on the path for interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank beyond June. Asian markets ended mixed as China stimulus hopes offset interest-rate worries and mixed data from China. Back home, rating agency ICRA in its latest report has said that air passenger traffic in India is expected to see a healthy growth of around 8-11 per cent year-on-year to around 407-418 million in FY2025, supported by strong pick-up in both leisure and business travel, improving connectivity to newer destinations in the domestic segment and the continued uptick in international travel.

The BSE Sensex ended at 73,917.03, up by 253.31 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 73,459.80 and 74,070.84. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.18%, while Small cap index was up by 1.39%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 2.41%, Auto up by 1.80%, Realty up by 1.68%, Consumer Disc up by 1.55% and Basic Materials was up by 1.53%, while IT down by 0.74% and TECK down by 0.63% was the only losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 5.78%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.85%, JSW Steel up by 1.77%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.38% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.01%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.55%, HCL Tech down by 1.22%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.89%, Nestle down by 0.85% and Wipro down by 0.76% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) member Sanjeev Sanyal expressing optimism over the India’s economic growth has said that the country will be a $4 trillion economy in 2024-25 and surpass Japan by early next fiscal to become the world's fourth largest economy. He further said that a 7 per cent economic growth rate will be a 'very good' growth rate for India, given various constraints, including the country's weak exports. He said ‘So, this financial year, we will become a $4 trillion economy’. 

Currently, in US dollar terms, India is the fifth largest economy with a size of about $3.7 trillion in nominal terms. He said Japan is now just a little ahead of us at $4.1 trillion. He added ‘So, either very early next year or even you know this year, we will cross Japan to become the world's fourth largest economy’. According to him, Germany is a $4.6 trillion economy and it is not growing, so makes it a static target. He said ‘Maybe in two years, we will go past Germany. So, I think in terms of becoming the world's third largest economy, we are reasonably now close to the target’.

Sanyal argued that the government should not push any fiscal move to accelerate economic growth to 8-9 per cent. He said compounding of growth is the single most important thing as this will generate jobs and taxes. About the internationalisation of the rupee, he said it is about converting the rupee into a hard currency. He said India's limited purpose is to convert the rupee into a hard currency over the next decade in terms of its wider usage as the currency in which people trade, in particular, the country's own trade.

The CNX Nifty ended at 22,466.10, up by 62.25 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 22345.65 and 22,502.15. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 6.02%, JSW Steel up by 2.37%, Grasim Industries up by 2.15%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.87% and BPCL up by 1.54%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.71%, Cipla down by 1.55%, SBI Life down by 1.24%, HCL Tech down by 1.11% and Bajaj Auto down by 1.03% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading lower; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 28.03 points or 0.33% to 8,410.62, France’s CAC fell 32.94 points or 0.4% to 8,155.55 and Germany’s DAX was down by 57.57 points or 0.31% to 18,681.24.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Friday, even after three top Federal Reserve officials urged patience on interest rate cuts until its clear inflation is moderating back to the 2% target. Meanwhile, Chinese shares gained as China announced fresh measures to revive the struggling property market. China will cut interest rates of mortgage loans and down-payment ratios for homebuyers to boost lacklustre property demand. However, Japanese markets finished lower tracking overnight falls in Wall Street, and majority of Japanese firms surveyed said the recent depreciation of the yen has eroded their profits.