The frontline indices traded with minor gains in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 18,550 mark after hitting the day's low of 18,536.95 in early trade. Bank, media and metal stocks were in demand while pharma, healthcare and realty stocks witnessed a bit of a selling pressure.

At 13:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 63.54 points or 0.10% to 62,474.22. The Nifty 50 index added 23 points or 0.12% to 18,583.50.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.31% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index advanced 0.30%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,866 shares rose and 1,520 shares fell. A total of 153 shares were unchanged.

Politics:

The votes polled in assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat are being counted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) today, 08 December 2022.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading in 31 seats, while the Congress is leading in 32 seats and the independent candidates are ahead on four seats in Himachal Pradesh, according to ECI.

Early trends point to a sweeping victory for the ruling BJP in Gujarat that has not lost an election in the state since 1995. The BJP was leading in 150 seats, while Congress was ahead in 18 and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was winning six seats, according to early trends reported by ECI. Others were leading on four seats.

The assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh were held in a single phase on 12 November 2022. The assembly elections in Gujarat were held in two phases - on 1st and 5th of December 2022.

Gainers & Losers:

Axis Bank (up 1.92%), IndusInd Bank (up 1.83%), Eicher Motors (up 1.69%), Larsen & Toubro (L&T) (up 1.57%) and Hindalco Industries (up 1.44%) were top Nifty gainers.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 3.59%), Power Grid Corporation of India (down 1.58%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 1.15%), HDFC Life Insurance Company (down 1.10%) and Divi's Laboratories (down 1.03%) were major Nifty losers.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries slipped 3.59%. The USFDA placed the Halol, Gujarat facility under import alert following the inspection conducted in May 2022.

Stocks in Spotlight:

JSW Steel rose 0.72%. The steel major's standalone crude steel production in November 2022 stood at 16.90 lakh tonnes, registering a growth of 16% YoY.

HCL Technologies shed 0.09%. The company announced a new collaboration with Intel Corporation and Mavenir to develop and provide scalable private 5G network solutions for communication service providers (CSP) and broader cross-vertical enterprises.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) added 0.96%. ONGC has signed a MoU with global petroleum giant Shell for cooperation in carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) studies. The MoU is aimed at developing carbon capture, utilisation and storage, or CCUS/carbon capture and storage (CCS) as an emissions mitigation tool for combating climate change and injecting carbon dioxide (CO2) for geological storage as well as enhanced oil production from mature fields of ONGC.

Macrotech Developers gained 2.69%. The real estate developer said that it launched a qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue, consisting of an offer for sale to achieve minimum public shareholding. The floor price of the QIP issue is fixed at Rs 1,022.75 per equity share. The floor price is set at a discount of 4.17% to Wednesday's closing price of Rs 1,067.30 per share.

Global Markets:

Most Asian stocks declined on Thursday, with recession fears weighing on continued negative sentiment.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index popped on Thursday, bucking the trend in the region as a local news outlet reported the city is considering lifting its outdoor mask rule.

Japan's economy saw an annualized quarterly contraction of 0.8% in the third quarter. The government's first preliminary estimate released in November was a 1.2% decline.

In US, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed down on Wednesday after a choppy session on Wall Street, as investors struggled to grasp a clear direction as they weighed how the Federal Reserve's monetary policy tightening might feed through into corporate America.

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