Sensex, Nifty gain traction in early noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks gained traction in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty holding gains of over a percent each, aided by positive cues from other Asian markets along with buying at all sectors. IT and TECK stocks gained the most on the BSE with Tech Mahindra surging more than 3 percent. Sentiments remained positive with a private report stating that the rural economy of India has emerged as a significant driver of economic growth, outpacing urban areas largely due to increased government spending in the recent quarters. Further, amid concerns over the spurt in imports of precious metals from the UAE under the trade agreement, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal has said that India is seeking review of certain provisions of the free trade agreement (FTA) with the UAE, which came into force on May 1, 2022. He said that India is in discussions with the UAE and there are various issues which can be discussed in the review.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher, after Malaysia's economic growth accelerated more than initially estimated in the second quarter on household consumption and investment. The revised estimate from the Department of Statistics showed that gross domestic product registered an annual growth of 5.9 percent in the second quarter after rising 4.2 percent in the previous quarter. This was the strongest growth since the fourth quarter of 2022, when GDP expanded by 7.4 percent. The second quarter growth was revised up from 5.8 percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 80070.93, up by 965.05 points or 1.22% after trading in a range of 79306.69 and 80130.52. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 1.29%, while Small cap index was up by 1.34%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.40%, TECK up by 1.97%, Realty up by 1.93%, Oil & Gas up by 1.41% and Auto up by 1.36%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 3.13%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.74%, TCS up by 2.52%, Tata Motors up by 2.52% and HCL Tech. up by 2.28%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 0.53% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.06% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce ministry in its latest data has showed that with the government focusing on boosting domestic manufacturing of pharmaceutical products, India's medicine and antibiotics exports have started gaining significant market share in the US. India is the third largest import source of 'medicine put up for retail sale' for the US. The top two are Ireland and Switzerland. In 2023, the country exported these medicines worth $9 billion as against $7.33 billion in 2022.

According to the data, with this increase in the shipments, India's share went up to 13.1 per cent in 2023 from 10.08 per cent in 2022. Share of the top exporter Ireland fell to 13.85 per cent in 2023 from 17.18 per cent in 2022 because its sales in the US went down to $9.5 billion in 2023 from $12.5 billion in 2022. The second biggest exporter Switzerland also saw its share decline to 13.7 per cent last year from 17.4 per cent in 2022. Similarly, India has increased its share among exporters of antibiotics in the Italian market. It is ranked 10th in that market by increasing its share to 2.12 per cent in 2023 from 0.96 per cent in 2022. 

The data further indicated that in value terms, the country's antibiotics exports to Italy stood at $23.34 million in 2023 as against $11.48 million in 2022. Further the data showed that India's competitiveness is growing in the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) apparatus market of Germany. In 2023, the country made a small gain by increasing its export share in Germany to 1.7 per cent from 0.45 per cent in 2022. In value terms, India exported these MRI machines worth $13.02 million last year as against $2.93 million in 2022. India is the sixth largest exporter of MRI apparatus, whereas the UK is the leader with exports of $460 million.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24434.30, up by 290.55 points or 1.20% after trading in a range of 24204.50 and 24452.25. There were 44 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Wipro up by 3.43%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.05%, LTIMindtree up by 3.04%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.76% and Tata Motors up by 2.51%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 0.57%, SBI Life Insurance down by 0.53%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.42%, Divi's Lab down by 0.19% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.11% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher; Hang Seng advanced 302.09 points or 1.77% to 17,411.23, Jakarta Composite gained 39.52 points or 0.53% to 7,449.02, Shanghai Composite strengthened 3.36 points or 0.12% to 2,880.72, Straits Times rose 38.37 points or 1.16% to 3,354.10, KOSPI increased 52.73 points or 1.95% to 2,697.23, Nikkei 225 surged 1336.03 points or 3.51% to 38,062.67 and Taiwan Weighted added 454.16 points or 2.03% to 22,349.33.