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Key gauges trade higher in morning deals
Mar-07-2025

Indian equity benchmarks erased initial losses and were trading higher in morning deals, led by gains in Industrials, Capital Goods and Basic Materials stocks. Traders took support as Crisil Intelligence in a report stated that India’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth would be steady at 6.5 per cent in fiscal 2026 despite uncertainties stemming from geopolitical turns and trade-related issues led by US tariff actions. However, gains remain capped as some concern came with exchange data showed Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,377.32 crore on net basis on Thursday. Sector-wise, auto stocks remained din watch as Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) in its latest data showed that automobile retail sales across categories, including passenger vehicles and two-wheelers, witnessed a drop of 7 per cent in February 2025 amid declining demand. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed after U.S. stocks fell sharply overnight, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq officially entering into correction territory on tariff worries and renewed concerns about spending on artificial intelligence.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 74445.18, up by 105.09 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 74038.03 and 74562.37. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.40%, while Small cap index was up by 0.99%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Industrials up by 1.21%, Capital Goods up by 1.10%, Basic Materials up by 0.77%, Metal up by 0.74% and Energy up by 0.63%, while IT down by 0.56%, TECK down by 0.44%, FMCG down by 0.32%, Utilities down by 0.21% and Consumer Durables down by 0.17% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 2.33%, Axis Bank up by 1.35%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 1.29%, Tata Motors up by 1.22% and Ultratech Cement up by 0.88%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 2.44%, Infosys down by 1.23%, Zomato down by 1.13%, NTPC down by 1.04% and HCL Technologies down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Crisil has said that the private sector capital expenditure is unlikely to pick up in a sustained way despite India Inc's profitability being near decadal high. It added that the profitability of India Inc is set to increase for the third year in a row in FY26 on the back of soft commodity prices. An analysis of 800 companies excluding ones in the banking and finance and oil and gas sectors has revealed that the pre-tax profit margins are set to widen to up to 20 per cent in FY26. Crisil noted that the government is leading the investments in the economy for the last few years, and there have been calls for a revival in the corporate capex as well. However, it also noted that rather than investing to create new capacities, India Inc has deployed money to retire debt and other measures rather than investing it even though the capacity utilization levels are high.

About corporates' capex, Crisil has said that corporates' ability to invest is not matched by the willingness to invest at this stage as the uncertainties due to a volatile global environment, and the unevenness in domestic demand are the factors restraining corporates from investing. The agency estimates India Inc's revenue growth to accelerate to up to 8 per cent in FY26, from the 6 per cent estimated in FY25 and the growth particularly will be led by higher volumes than that of price hikes.

About possible impact of tariffs, it has said that the overall economic climate is very 'foggy' at present given the fast-paced announcements being done by US President Donald Trump, and it will be very hard to make any assessment of the impact of the tariffs and retaliatory moves being undertaken. Meanwhile, it expects that the RBI will deliver another rate cut of 0.25 per cent in April given the comfortable inflation projections and tight fiscal policies which don't stoke price rise. It added the central bank will cut rates by a total of up to 0.75 per cent in FY26, which will make the current cycle of rate cuts a shallow one when compared to the 2.25 per cent of rate hikes on the tightening side. Backing the RBI's decision to keep the policy stance unchanged at 'neutral', it said that the central bank will continue with liquidity management measures and rely more on open market operations rather than using the blunt cash reserve ratio.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22596.25, up by 51.55 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 22464.75 and 22625.50. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 2.55%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.24%, Bharat Electronics up by 2.04%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 1.72% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.67%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 2.50%, Infosys down by 1.45%, BPCL down by 1.36%, Shriram Finance down by 1.36% and NTPC down by 1.11% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Straits Times rose 1.9 points or 0.05% to 3,918.96, Jakarta Composite gained 41 points or 0.62% to 6,658.85, Shanghai Composite strengthened 0.23 points or 0.01% to 3,381.33 and Hang Seng advanced 135.09 points or 0.55% to 24,504.80. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 slipped 832.67 points or 2.21% to 36,872.26, Taiwan Weighted lost 101.73 points or 0.45% to 22,613.70 and KOSPI dropped 4.76 points or 0.18% to 2,571.40.  
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