Benchmarks continue to trade flat in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade flat in morning deals, tracking a pause in global equities rally ahead of US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s address. Traders remained cautious as rating firm ICRA has projected the year-on-year (YoY) expansion of India’s GDP to fall to a six-quarter low of 6.0 per cent in first quarter (Q1) of FY2025 from 7.8 per cent in Q4 FY2024 amid a contraction in government capital expenditure and a dip in urban consumer confidence. The ICRA estimate is much lower than the RBI’s GDP projection. The RBI has projected the real GDP growth for the first quarter of 2024-25 at 7.1 per cent. However, traders took some support with finance ministry’s Department of Economic Affairs stating that food inflation in India is expected to fall in the coming months as plentiful monsoon rains have replenished water levels in reservoirs. As per latest data, retail inflation in India came down to 3.5 per cent in July 2024, the lowest since September 2019, primarily because of a moderation in food inflation. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed, as investors everywhere trained their eyes on the gathering of central bank officials from around the world to look for cues about an interest rate easing cycle as inflation moderates gradually.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 81016.76, down by 36.43 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 80883.26 and 81231.49. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.23%, while Small cap index was up by 0.17%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.71%, Capital Goods up by 0.66%, Industrials up by 0.50%, Energy up by 0.33% and Power up by 0.32%, while Realty down by 0.74%, Consumer Durables down by 0.62%, IT down by 0.61%, TECK down by 0.55% and Basic Materials down by 0.40% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.11%, Sun Pharma up by 0.65%, Reliance Industries up by 0.63%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.61% and ICICI Bank up by 0.50%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 1.36%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.80%, Tata Steel down by 0.78%, Infosys down by 0.73% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.62% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that micro, small and medium industries (MSME) will play an important role in realising the vision to transform India into a developed nation by 2047. Therefore, she said, they have been given special priority in the Union Budget.

The finance minister was addressing the discussion programme with MSME marble cluster units in Udaipur. She also informed that dialogue programmes are planned to be conducted with 250 MSME clusters across the country, starting today with the Marble Cluster in Udaipur. She said that Small Industries Development Bank (SIDBI) is now providing loans directly to micro industries, which is a matter of great relief. With this, convenient loans will be easily available to micro industries.

MSME Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said the MSME sector has a major contribution to eliminating unemployment. He added ‘Micro and small industries are the backbone of India's economy, which contributes 30 per cent to the country's economy and provides employment to 20 crore people.’

He said that while the rate of global economic progress is 3.2 per cent, India is growing at 7 per cent. He said that by paying special attention only to micro industries, the country can be taken to the category of developed countries.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24808.15, down by 3.35 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 24771.65 and 24858.40. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Auto up by 2.67%, Coal India up by 1.65%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.31%, Apollo Hospital up by 1.13% and Tata Motors up by 1.10%. On the flip side, Grasim Industries down by 1.62%, Titan Company down by 1.37%, LTIMindtree down by 1.15%, Wipro down by 0.85% and Tata Steel down by 0.82% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Jakarta Composite gained 55.08 points or 0.73% to 7,543.76, Shanghai Composite strengthened 3.79 points or 0.13% to 2,852.56, Straits Times rose 9.33 points or 0.28% to 3,382.91 and Nikkei 225 surged 127.71 points or 0.33% to 38,338.72.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted lost 10.76 points or 0.05% to 22,138.07, Hang Seng declined 37.04 points or 0.21% to 17,603.96 and KOSPI dropped 2.04 points or 0.08% to 2,705.63.