Sensex, Nifty trade higher in early deals on account of value buying

Indian equity benchmarks made optimistic start on Tuesday tracking broadly positive cues from global peers. Sensex and Nifty are trading higher with decent gains in early deals on account of value buying after previous session’s sell-off. Sentiments got boost as NITI Aayog CEO B V R Subrahmanyam said India's industrial sector is growing at a fast pace and the country can now aim to achieve 9% plus economic growth. Subrahmanyam said India's manufacturing sector has been generating sufficient number of jobs. According to the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) data, the number of persons employed in manufacturing industries rose 7.5% in 2022-23 to 1.85 crore from 1.72 crore in the previous year. However, upside remained limited amid weak economic data of the country. The government data showed that the growth in production of eight key infrastructure sectors entered a negative zone after three-and-a-half years, contracting 1.8% in August 2024 due to decline in output of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, cement and electricity. Also, Reserve Bank of India said the country’s current account deficit widened marginally to $9.7 billion or 1.1% of GDP in April-June 2024, as against $8.9 billion or 1% in the year-ago period.

On the global front, Asian stock markets are trading mostly higher on Tuesday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, as markets react to remarks by US Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who suggested the central bank will continue to lower interest rates but stressed the downward path for rates is not on a preset course. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan's quarterly Tankan Survey of business sentiment showed large manufacturing in Japan was steady in the third quarter of 2024, with a diffusion index score of +13. Markets in China, Hong Kong and South Korea are closed for Holiday.

Back home, auto sector stocks are buzzing reacting to their monthly sales numbers. Aviation industry stocks flew upwards on the bourse after the Centre slashed jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices. ATF prices have been cut by six percent in Delhi to Rs 87,597 per kg, down from Rs 93,480 per kg earlier. The cost of jet fuel is now at the lowest level since April 2024. In stock specific development, NTPC traded higher as its subsidiary -- NTPC Green Energy has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Rajasthan Government for the development of 25 GW of renewable energy projects in Rajasthan.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 84472.30, up by 172.52 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 84250.62 and 84648.40. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.20%, while Small cap index was up by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.77%, Telecom up by 0.77%, TECK up by 0.74%, IT up by 0.70% and Capital Goods up by 0.69%, while Realty down by 0.40%, Metal down by 0.36%, Healthcare down by 0.31%, FMCG down by 0.11% and Basic Materials down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 3.59%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.57%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.13%, Infosys up by 0.99% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.94%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.60%, Titan Company down by 0.99%, Sun Pharma down by 0.81%, JSW Steel down by 0.65% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.59% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over India’s growth prospects, NITI Aayog CEO B V R Subrahmanyam has said that India's industrial sector is growing at a fast pace and the country can now aim to achieve 9 per cent plus economic growth. He said India's manufacturing sector has been generating sufficient number of jobs. According to the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) data by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), the number of persons employed in manufacturing industries rose 7.5 per cent in 2022-23 to 1.85 crore from 1.72 crore in the previous year.

A MoSPI statement said the estimated number of persons engaged in this sector in 2022-23 exceeded the pre-pandemic level (2018-19) by more than 22.14 lakh, and added that at the same time, average emolument also registered an increase over the previous year. Subrahmanyam said also observed that a lot of people (rating agencies and multilateral agencies) will be revising India's economic growth rate on the upper side. He added ‘We have wiped out the effect of Covid’.

According to the ASI data, the average emolument per person engaged in this sector had gone up by 6.3 per cent in 2022-23 in comparison to 2021-22. The number of total persons engaged in manufacturing industries increased to 1,84,94,962 in 2022-23 from 1,72,15,350 in 2021-22. The figure was 1,60,89,700 in 2020-21, 1,66,24,291 in 2019-20 and 1,62,80,211 in 2018-19. The results show that the Gross Value Added (GVA) grew by 7.3 per cent in current prices in 2022-23 over 2021-22. The increase in input was 24.4 per cent while output grew 21.5 per cent in the sector in 2022-23 over 2021-22.

The year 2022-23 witnessed a growth in this sector for majority of economic parameters like invested capital, input, output, GVA, employment and wages and it even surpassed the pre-pandemic level in absolute value terms. The main drivers of this growth in 2022-23 were industries like manufacture of basic metals, coke & refined petroleum products, food products, chemical and chemical products and motor vehicles. These industries, taken together, contributed about 58 per cent to the total output of the sector and showed output growth of 24.5 per cent and GVA growth of 2.6 per cent in comparison to 2021-22.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25859.75, up by 48.90 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 25788.05 and 25907.60. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 3.38%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.51%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.26%, Shriram Finance up by 1.20% and Infosys up by 1.07%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.45%, Titan Company down by 1.06%, Eicher Motors down by 1.02%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.98% and Hindalco down by 0.85% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading in green; Nikkei 225 surged 722.94 points or 1.91% to 38,642.49, Taiwan Weighted rose 157.87 points or 0.71% to 22,382.41, Jakarta Composite gained 54.24 points or 0.72% to 7,582.17 and Straits Times was up by 4.47 points or 0.12% to 3,589.76.