The domestic equity barometers continued to trade near the day's high in early afternoon trade. The Nifty continued to trade above the 17,400 level. IT shares witnessed bargain buying after declining in the past three sessions.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 371.37 points or 0.63% to 59,333.49. The Nifty 50 index added 117.85 points or 0.68% to 17,421.80.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.07% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index advanced 1.26%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,386 shares rose and 954 shares fell. A total of 128 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India's GDP or gross domestic product slowed to 4.4 per cent in the October-December quarter 2022, primarily due to a 1.1 per cent contraction in manufacturing, along with weaker private consumption demand and government expenditure, according to the second advance estimates released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Tuesday.

For the full financial year 2022-23, the National Statistics Office (NSO) has retained the growth estimate at 7 per cent in the second advance estimates. According to the first advance estimates released last month, the GDP growth was pegged at 7 per cent for 2022-23. In financial year 2021-2022, India's economy grew at 8.7 per cent.

The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) was at 55.3 in February, little-changed from 55.4 in January and signaling a strong improvement in the health of the sector. The headline figure was also above its long-run average of 53.7.

India's core sector output, comprising eight sectors including coal and electricity accounting for nearly 40 per cent of industrial output, jumped 7.8 per cent in January 2023, the official data showed yesterday. The production of fertilizers, coal, electricity, steel, natural gas, cement and refinery products increased in January 2023 over the corresponding month of last year.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, tumbled 4.35% to 13.41. The Nifty 29 March 2023 futures were trading at 17,492, at a premium of 70.2 points as compared with the spot at 17,421.80.

The Nifty option chain for the 29 March 2023 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 30.2 lakh contracts at the 18,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 45 lakh contracts were seen at 17,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index rose 1.03% to 29,969.25. The index had declined 4.99% in the six sessions.

Tech Mahindra (up 1.7%), Tata Consultancy Services (up 1.66%), HCL Technologies (up 1.51%), L&T Technology Services (up 1.38%) and Persistent Systems (up 1.36%) were the top gainers.

Among the other gainers were Mphasis (up 0.98%), Wipro (up 0.8%), Infosys (up 0.77%), LTI Mindtree (up 0.27%).

Stocks in Spotlight:

Steel Strips Wheels advanced 1.48%. The company said that it had achieved a net turnover of Rs 350 40 crore in February 2023 as against Rs 317.72 crore in February 2022, recording a growth of 10.29% on YoY basis.

On the segmental front, growth was led by Tractor division (up 52% YoY), followed by Alloy Wheels segment (up 19% YoY), Truck segment (up 14% YoY) and 2 & 3 Wheelers division (up 4% YoY). However, during the period under review, Exports registered a de-growth of 10% YoY. Further, Passenger Car segment recorded negative growth of 3% as compared with the same period last year.

NCC rose 1.98%. The company announced that it has received 3 new orders aggregating Rs 2,374 crore in the month of February 2023. Out of these orders, one order valuing Rs 1,224 crore relates to the Transportation Division, one order valuing Rs 830 crore relates to the Water & Environment Division and one order valuing Rs 320 crore relates to the Mining Division.