Ahead of the release of the Reserve Bank of India’s policy meeting minutes, Indian equity markets opened higher on Thursday, led by banking, financial, and IT stocks. The BSE Sensex was trading 467 points or 0.71% higher at 65,752. Nifty50 was trading at 19,567, up 132 points or 0.68% at around 9.55 a.m.
Among Sensex stocks, L&T, Tech Mahindra, JSW Steel, and Infosys opened with gains, while only Jio Financial Services and NTPC opened with losses. Atul Auto shares opened over 4% higher after European firm Societe Generale bought 140,000 shares of the firm. Meanwhile, small-cap firm Vascon Engineers shares rose 9% after the company got a letter of acceptance amounting to Rs 606 crore.
Sector-wise, Nifty PSU Bank rose 0.81%, and Nifty IT gained 0.69%. Auto, financial, FMCG, media, metal, pharma, and realty sectors also opened higher. Meanwhile, Nifty Midcap100 advanced 0.83%, and Smallcap100 surged 0.65%.
The minutes of the RBI’s latest monetary policy are due to be released at 5 p.m.
Experts View
“The near-term market outlook has turned distinctly positive with the US economy’s soft landing narrative lifting sentiments globally and Chandrayaan 3‘s successful soft landing on the moon boosting sentiments in India,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
The sudden reversal in the declining trend of INR also is indicative of this shift in global macros favouring India in the near-term, Vijayakumar added.
Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities, said, “Nifty could now stay in the 19320-19558 band for the near term.”
Global Markets
Wall Street equities settled higher overnight, aided by strong earnings by tech firm Nvidia. Investors also await the annual global central bankers’ gathering, scheduled to begin on Thursday, at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for cues on the rate hiking trajectory. Asian markets advanced on Thursday.
FII/DII Tracker
Foreign institutional investors bought Indian shares on a net basis on Wednesday, adding Rs 614 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 125 crore, according to provisional National Stock Exchange data.
Oil Impact
Oil prices slipped in early Asian trade on Thursday as weak manufacturing data in major economies outweighed optimism around a larger-than-expected drop in US crude stocks.
Brent crude fell 24 cents, or 0.3%, to $82.97 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 29 cents, or 0.37%, to $78.59. a barrel.
Currency Watch
The Indian rupee advanced 25 paise to $82.47 against the US dollar in early trade, following a pullback in US Treasury yields on weak economic data. The dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, declined 0.02% to 103.39 level.
(With inputs from agencies)
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)
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