The headline equity benchmarks continued to trade with limited gains in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded near the 22,700 level. Metak, auto and oil & gas stocks advanced while media, realty and bank shares declined. Trading could be a volatile due to the expiry of weekly index options on the NSE.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 289.43 points or 0.38% to 74,768.87. The Nifty 50 index added 94 points or 0.42% to 22,698.85.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.03% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.38%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,998 shares rose and 1,759 shares fell. A total of 133 shares were unchanged.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, jumped 6.02% to 13.65.

Economy:

Despite falling from 59.1 in March to 58.8 in April, the seasonally adjusted HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) signalled the second-best improvement in the health of the sector for three-and-a-half years. The PMI was comfortably above both the neutral mark of 50.0 and its long-run average (53.9).

The Indian manufacturing sector started the first fiscal quarter in a high gear, according to the latest HSBC PMI data. Firms experienced a sharp upturn in new business intakes, and scaled up production accordingly.

April's rise in raw material stocks was supported by a further increase in buying levels. Inputs were purchased to the greatest degree since June 2023. Another factor that facilitated this was suppliers' ability to deliver items in a timely manner. Vendor performance improved for the second straight month.

Pranjul Bhandari, Chief India Economist at HSBC, said: “On the price front, higher costs of raw materials and labour led to a modest uptick in input costs, but inflation remains below the historical average. However, firms passed these increases onto consumers through higher output charges, as demand remained resilient, resulting in improved margins.'

Meanwhile, the Gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections hit a record high in April 2024 at Rs 2.10 lakh crore. This represents a significant 12.4% year-on-year growth, driven by a strong increase in domestic transactions (up 13.4%) and imports (up 8.3%). After accounting for refunds, the net GST revenue for April 2024 stands at Rs 1.92 lakh crore, reflecting an impressive 15.5% growth compared to the same period last year.

In the month of April, 2024, the central government settled Rs 50,307 crore to CGST and Rs 41,600 crore to SGST from the IGST collected. This translates to total revenue of Rs 94,153 crore for CGST and Rs 95,138 crore for SGST for April, 2024 after regular settlement.

Gainers & Losers:

Bharat Petroleum Corporation (up 4.31%), Power Grid Corporation of India (up 4.26%), Asian Paints (up 2.78%), Bajaj Auto (up 2.22%) and NTPC (up 2.02%) were major Nifty gainers.

Kotak Mahindra bank (down 2.60%), Bharti Airtel (down 1.63%), ICICI Bank (down 1.21%), HDFC Life Insurance Company (down 1%) and Axis Bank (down 0.98%) were major Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Maruti Suzuki India rose 0.07%. The car manufacturer announced that its total production increased 16.99% to 169,751 units in April 2024 as against 145,096 units recorded in April 2023.

Adani Power shed 0.04%. The power generation company reported 47.8% fall in net profit to Rs 2,737 crore in Q4 FY24 from Rs 5,242 crore in Q4 FY23. Continuing revenue from operations increased by 27.3% YoY to Rs 13,288 crore in the fourth quarter. The company had recorded revenues of Rs 10,436 crore in Q4 FY23.

Hero MotoCorp added 0.51%. The company said that it had sold 533,585 units of motorcycles and scooters in April 2024, which is higher by 34.7% as compared with sales of 396,107 units recorded in April 2023.

Ambuja Cements rose 0.43%. The cement major’s consolidated net profit surged 63.61% to Rs 1,055.16 crore in Q4 FY24 as against Rs 644.94 crore recorded in Q4 FY23. Revenue from operations was at Rs 8,893.99 crore in the March quarter, up 11.65% from Rs 7,965.98 crore posted in the same period last year.

Havells India gained 0.27%. The company’s consolidated net profit jumped 24.8% YoY to Rs 447 crore in Q4 FY24. Revenue jumped 12% to Rs 5,442 crore in Q4 FY24 as compared with Rs 4,859 crore in Q4 FY23.

Global Markets:

Most of the European stocks traded higher while Asian stocks declined on Thursday, after the U.S. Federal Reserve opted to hold interest rates steady at the end of its two-day meeting.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell ruled out the possibility of a rate hike, easing worries over the central bank likely not being able to rein in inflation.

South Korea’s consumer prices rose at a slower pace in April from March on a year-on-year basis, according to official data. April CPI came in at 2.9% year on year, compared with a 3.1% rise in March. Core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, rose 2.3%. It was slightly slower than a 2.4% increase in March.

US stocks closed with a mixed performance on Wednesday following the Federal Reserve's decision to keep its key interest rate unchanged, as widely anticipated. The central bank indicated a potential rate cut in the future but expressed uncertainty regarding sustained progress on inflation.