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Extending gaining streak for second straight session, Indian equity benchmarks made healthy gains on Thursday, with the help of strong buying support in Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Finserv amid positive global cues. After a fabulous start, key indices remained under grip of bulls throughout the session, as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva said a high growth rate for India, as projected in the latest World Economic Outlook, is not only healthy for the country but also positive news for the world. Adding enthusiasm among traders, Service Export Promotion Council (SEPC) stated that services sector exports are likely to touch $350 billion in the current fiscal. It said the target has been revised from $300 billion to $350 billion for 2022-23 and is set in consideration to the sectors which couldn't perform in the last 2 years due to the pandemic and hopefully will bounce back in FY23, like travel and tourism, hospitality, education and entertainment.

Markets remained strong during second half of the session, taking support from Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s statement that the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP), aimed at improving multi-modal connectivity and last-mile connectivity across the country, is important for achieving the prime minister's dream of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25. The street was also positive with retirement fund body EPFO said it added 14.12 lakh subscribers in February 2022, 14 per cent more than 12.37 lakh enrolled in the same month a year ago. Meanwhile, the government is likely to take a call on the timing of LIC initial public offering within this week. The sale of 5 per cent stake or 31.6 crore shares in the country's largest insurer was originally planned for in March, but was postponed in view of the geopolitical tension.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly higher on Thursday following the mixed cues from Wall Street, and as U.S. futures climbed after the Federal Reserve released its Beige Book, which said U.S. economic activity has expanded at a moderate pace since mid-February, boding well for the global economy. European markets were trading in green with a dip in U.S. Treasury yields offering some relief. Investors continued to pay attention to the situation in Ukraine, with Russia's President Vladimir Putin declaring that Ukraine's Mariupol has been 'successfully liberated'.

Back home, Oil & gas industry stocks were in focus with report that India's crude oil production fell 2.67 per cent in the fiscal year ending March 31, as state-owned ONGC produced less than the target, but natural gas output rose helped by KG production by Reliance-BP. There were some reaction in aviation industry stocks with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) report showing that domestic airlines carried 24 million passengers during January-March 2022 against 23 million during the same period last year, growing at 6.06 per cent YoY. Lower base effect as well as easing Covid travel restrictions accelerated India's domestic air passenger traffic growth.

Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 874.18 points or 1.53% to 57,911.68 and the CNX Nifty was up by 256.05 points or 1.49% to 17,392.60.        

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 57,991.53 and 57,311.86, respectively. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.    

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.28%, while Small cap index was up by 1.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 2.14%, Consumer Discretionary up by 1.60%, Finance up by 1.54%, IT up by 1.45%, Industrials up by 1.45%, while Metal down by 0.06% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.50%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.70%, Bajaj Finserv up by 2.46%, Asian Paints up by 2.38% and Reliance Industries up by 2.35%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.88%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.63% and Nestle down by 0.60% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, dismissing the contention that currency devaluation encourages exports, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said weakening of the rupee would not be in the nation's interest in the long run. He also said it is important for India to expand exports significantly and encourage investments to increase foreign exchange inflows into the country.

He said ‘there is a large pool of thought which believes that you need to devalue your currency so that you become competitive in export market...’ He added ‘I can assure you from my own experience and my engagements with large sections of industry across the board confirms that rupee devaluation or weakening our currency is actually detrimental to our nation's interest, to our growth story and to our ability to be competitive in the long run.’

The minister also said that devaluation increases cost of imports, brings inflation into the country, pushes up interest cost and makes products uncompetitive as India is import-dependent for raw materials. He added that healthy exports, investments and remittances help in growing foreign exchange reserves, which stand at over $600 billion. He noted that export helps in earning precious foreign exchange and keeps the rupee stable.

He further said exports during April 1-14 have increased to $18.5 billion. He added India's pharma exports hold huge potential and can increase to $200 billion in the coming years. On free trade pacts, he said these agreements are ‘two-way traffic’ and help both sides

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 17,414.70 and 17,215.50. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.    

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Thursday with growing optimism for another strong earnings season. Japanese shares gained as the Japanese yen held near 20-year lows amid expectations the Bank of Japan will lag its peers including the US Federal Reserve in normalizing monetary policy. However, Chinese shares ended down on worries about sharp economic slowdown after recent policy measures fall short of market expectations.

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 4.36%, Coal India up by 3.99%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.15%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 2.70% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.69%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 1.19%, Hindalco down by 0.75%, ONGC down by 0.63%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.56% and Tata Steel down by 0.55% were the top losers.

European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 2.25 points or 0.03% to 7,631.47, France’s CAC increased 111.71 points or 1.69% to 6,736.62 and Germany’s DAX increased 207.37 points or 1.44% to 14,569.40.

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