:::LALKAR GROUP::::

The domestic equity benchmarks traded with minor gains in early afternoon trade. The Nifty traded tad below the 17,050 mark. Oil & gas stocks witnessed significant buying demand after recording sharp sell-off yesterday.

At 12:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 119.56 points or 0.21% to 57,264.78. The Nifty 50 index added 23.80 points or 0.14% to 17,040.10.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.18% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.42%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,758 shares rose and 1,517 shares fell. A total of 137 shares were unchanged.

Concerns continued to persist among the investor community that the US Fed's ultra-hawkish monetary tightening to tame the red-hot inflation could push the largest economy into recession.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s six-member Monetary Policy Committee is scheduled to meet this week during 28-30 September 2022. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das will announce the MPC decision on 30 September 2022, the last date of the meeting. The RBI is widely expected to maintain the balancing act between growth and inflation.

In the past three policy reviews, the RBI's rate-setting panel has raised 140 basis points in total since May this year. Currently, the repo rate, the interest rate at which the RBI lends to the commercial bank, stands at 5.40%.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, was down 0.52% to 21.78. The Nifty 29 September 2022 futures were trading at 17,036.10, at a discount of 4 points as compared with the spot at 17,040.10.

The Nifty option chain for the 29 September 2022 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 92.9 lakh contracts at the 18,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 77.4 lakh contracts were seen at 17,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Oil & Gas index advanced 1.86% to 7,749.8. The index had declined 3.24% to end at 7607.95 yesterday.

Indraprastha Gas (up 4.52%), Mahanagar Gas (up 4.29%), Gujarat Gas (up 4.29%), Gujarat State Petronet (up 3.64%) and Adani Total Gas (up 2.64%) were the top gainers.

Among the other gainers were Bharat Petroleum Corporation (up 1.82%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (up 1.3%), Castrol India (up 1.04%), Indian Oil Corporation (up 0.83%) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (up 0.8%).

Meanwhile, Aegis Logistics (down 2.59%), Oil India (down 2.15%) and Petronet LNG (down 0.5%) edged lower.

Stocks in Spotlight:

EKI Energy Services fell 1.49%. The company announced that its subsidiary, GHG Reduction Technologies has completed the capacity expansion at its manufacturing plant, located in Nashik, Maharashtra. The company said that the plant has a capacity to manufacture 5 million improved cookstoves per year, the highest ever in the biomass category. These improved cookstoves are being supplied for the clean cooking projects of major oil and gas players across the globe.

GPT Infraprojects advanced 1.80%. the company's board has approved the bonus issue of equity shares in the proportion of 1 equity share of for every 1 equity share held by the shareholders of the company as on the record date to be fixed by the board. The said bonus shares would be credited within 2 months from the date of board approval i.e. by 26 November 2022.