Sensex, Nifty magnify opening gains in early deals

Indian equity indices started the session in green on Friday tracking broadly positive cues from Asian counterparts. Sensex and Nifty soon gained traction and are trading higher with gains of over half a percent each in early deals amid value buying in Auto, Consumer discretionary and Telecom counters.  Traders took encouragement as expressing confidence, Finance Ministry in its monthly review has said that India's economy is set to grow at around 6.5 per cent in FY25. The Finance Minister further said that the growth outlook for October to December appears bright, with rural demand remaining resilient and urban demand picking up in the first two months of the quarter. Traders also took note of report that India's market capitalisation has soared 18.4 per cent to $5.18 trillion in 2024, adding $806 billion. This growth ranked third globally among the top 15 major markets, both in percentage and absolute terms. India will finish the year with the fifth biggest global market. 

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly higher following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders continue to be optimistic about more interest rate cuts by the U.S. Fed next year. They also remain reluctant to make significant moves at the end of the holiday shortened week to start fresh next week. Besides, retail sales in Japan grew 2.8 percent year-on-year in November 2024, up from a downwardly revised 1.3 percent growth in October, beating market expectations of a 1.7 percent growth.

Back home, banking stocks are buzzing as the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) annual publication noted that commercial banks in India reported a sixth consecutive year of rise in their net profits in 2023-24 while bad loans continued to fall. In stock specific development, Power Mech Projects climbed on securing an order worth Rs 186 crore from Jaiprakash Power Ventures.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 78957.56, up by 485.08 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 78598.55 and 78966.14. 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 0.32%, while Small cap index was up by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.60%, Consumer discretionary up by 0.83%, Telecom up by 0.72%, Bankex up by 0.62% and Healthcare up by 0.62%, while Realty down by 0.17% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.39%, Indusind Bank up by 1.67%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.46%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.43% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.33%. On the flip side, HCL Technologies down by 0.23% and TCS down by 0.07% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, expressing cautiousness over India’s import bill, the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) has said that the depreciation of Indian rupee against the US dollar is likely to push the country's import bill by about $15 billion. It noted compared to December last year, the Indian Rupee (INR) has depreciated 2.34 per cent against the US dollar, moving from Rs 83.25 to Rs 85.20, while the Chinese Yuan has weakened by 0.06 per cent.

It added that this depreciation of the INR will negatively impact gold imports, especially as gold prices have surged 27 per cent from $2,066.26 per ounce in December 2023 to $2,617.11 per ounce in December 2024. India's oil imports, mostly priced in USD, could have been significantly costlier due to the rupee's depreciation, however, the impact has been mitigated by a 5 per cent drop in Brent crude prices, from $77.6 per barrel in December 2023 to $73.7 per barrel in December 2024.

GTRI Founder Ajay Srivastava said ‘Overall India's import bill will increase by about $15 billion due to the INR depreciation impact’, and added that the most significant effect of the INR's depreciation will be on India's $100-billion worth of industrial goods imports from China. He said since both the INR and the yuan have weakened against the US dollar, the dual depreciation amplifies the cost of these imports, further straining trade balances.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23904.00, up by 153.80 points or 0.65% after trading in a range of 23800.60 and 23907.55. There were 47 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Auto up by 2.57%, Eicher Motors up by 2.47%, Tata Motors up by 2.43%, Indusind Bank up by 1.90% and Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.77%. On the flip side, HCL Technologies down by 0.17% and TCS down by 0.10% were the only losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 663.18 points or 1.68% to 40,231.24, Taiwan Weighted rose 75.18 points or 0.32% to 23,322.12, Hang Seng advanced 23.57 points or 0.12% to 20,121.86, Straits Times added 10.7 points or 0.28% to 3,772.15, Shanghai Composite was up by 9.81 points or 0.29% to 3,407.89. On the other hand, KOSPI dropped 37.25 points or 1.53% to 2,392.42 and Jakarta Composite was down by 8.08 points or 0.11% to 7,057.67.