Benchmarks pare some gains; IT stocks rise for 3rd day

The key equity benchmarks pared some of the early gains in morning trade. The Nifty traded tad below the 18,100 mark. IT shares witnessed across the board buying demand for third consecutive session.

At 10:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 293.16 points or 0.48% to 61,568.25. The Nifty 50 index added 83.50 points or 0.46% to 18,099.35.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.67% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.69%

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1,967 shares rose and 1,165 shares fell. A total of 151 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India's trade deficit narrowed in January as imports fell at a faster rate than exports. The trade deficit narrowed to $17.75 billion in January, compared with $23.76 billion in December 2022.

India's exports in January dipped by 6.58% to $32.91 billion, as against $35.23 billion in the same month last year. Imports in January also declined by 3.63% to $50.66 billion, as against $52.57 billion in the same month last year.

Engineering exports dipped by 3.37% to $88.27 billion during April-January 2022-23. In the same period, gems and jewellery shipments declined by 0.54% to $31.61 billion. Gold imports during April-January this fiscal declined by 11.26% to $29 billion, as against $40.35 billion in the same period last year.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index rose 1.63% to 31,439.00. The index has added 3.79% in three sessions.

Mphasis (up 4.06%), Tech Mahindra (up 3.84%), L&T Technology Services (up 3.38%), LTI Mindtree (up 3.21%) and Persistent Systems (up 2.51%) were the top gainers.

Among the other gainers were Tata Consultancy Services (up 1.27%), Wipro (up 1.13%), Coforge (up 0.92%), Infosys (up 0.88%) and HCL Technologies (up 0.83%).

Stocks in Spotlight:

Nestle India (up 0.16%) and Schaeffler India (up 2.63%) will announce their quarterly earnings today.

Ambuja Cements added 1%. The company has been declared the preferred bidder for the Uskalvagu limestone block in Odisha. The block contains an estimated limestone resource of 141 million tonnes.

Aurobindo Pharma rose 0.51%. The Unit I & III of APL Healthcare, the company's subsidiary, based in Telangana, was inspected by the U.S. FDA from Jan. 9 to 18, 2023. These facilities have now been classified as Voluntary Action Indicated by the U.S. FDA.

Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) gained 1.77%. HAL and Argentinian Air Force has signed a pact for supply of spares and engine repair of legacy two tonne class helicopters.

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