Indian equities

At 9.30 a.m., Sensex was at 57,195 points, up 0.05 per cent, whereas Nifty was at 17,212 points, up 0.2 per cent. On Monday, both the indices declined 2 per cent each. A rise in inflation as well as a fresh spike in global crude oil prices seemed to have dented investors' sentiment.

Besides, the underwhelming corporate results till now along with the recent rise in global crude oil prices and a weak rupee are expected to support this trend. "Sustained high inflation and tightening monetary policy globally are bringing caution among the participants," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

According to IRDAI, the Open House will be chaired by the Chairman and in his absence the senior most whole-time member along with other officials. The IRDAI has requested all the regulated entities- insurers, intermediaries- to make use of this initiative and offer pragmatic solutions to reduce significant insurance penetration gap in the country.

Retail inflation for March came at 6.95 per cent, which has been above RBI's upper tolerance band of 6 per cent for three consecutive months since January. At 9.53 a.m., Sensex was 0.4 per cent up at 58,820 points, whereas Nifty up 0.5 per cent at 17,620 points.

The net inflows into equity and equity-linked schemes rose to Rs 28,463.49 crore from Rs 19,705.27 crore in February and Rs 14,887.7 crore in January. In December 2021, the net inflows had stood at over Rs 25,000 crore. "The deteriorating geo-political situation caused by the Russia-Ukraine war, elevated hawkish US Fed stance, or even the rising inflation owing to spurt in fuel prices have not deterred investor confidence in the India growth story," said N.S. Venkatesh, Chief Executive, AMFI.

The sell-off by the FPIs in March is way more than they pulled out in January and February of Rs 33,303 crore and Rs 35,592 crore, respectively. The recent sell-off was triggered by policy rate hike by the US Federal Reserve which made the country more attractive for investments.

"The stock market kicked off FY23 on a positive note. It started the day muted and in line with global markets but strengthened as the day progressed as the broad market picked up and buying increased in sectors like banks, power and realty," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. The outcome of the Reserve Bank of India's upcoming monetary policy meeting next week would be the major factors that will dictate the market outlook, he added.

India's key equity indices -- Sensex and Nifty -- traded in the green in the opening session on Wednesday. At 9.54 a.m., Sensex was 1.4 per cent or 777 points up at 56,554 points, whereas Nifty 1.3 per cent or 220 points up at 16,883 points. Among the specific stocks, Indusind Bank, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Grasim Industries and Bajaj Finserv were the top five gainers among the Nifty 50 companies, rising 3.7 per cent, 3.5 per cent, 3.0 per cent, 2.8 per cent, and 2.7 per cent, respectively.

Geopolitical tensions emanating from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict as well as crucial state assembly election results will determine — key equity indices — movements next week. Besides, macro-economic industrial production data along with the direction of foreign fund flows and global commodities price movements will impact investors' sentiments.

As per MOFSL report, FIIs continued to remain sellers in India as the global risk-off sentiment and the geopolitical situation have added to concerns of inflation, higher bond yields, and global rate hikes. "This has resulted in $14.1 billion of outflows from the Indian market since Oct'21. This has been offset by DII buying of $16 billion over the same period."