Indian equity benchmarks were trading higher at noon amid falling crude oil prices. Sentiments got a boost as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has exuded confidence on India’s relative and absolute growth performance in the rest of the decade and forecasted the country’s growth rate to be around 7% for the financial year 2022-23 amid reports of global recession and declining growth rates of almost all major economies. However, the surge remained capped as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its annual World Economic Outlook report revised its projected GDP growth rate for India to 6.8% in 2022, a 60 basis point downgrade since the July forecast. Meanwhile, investors looking towards domestic retail inflation data and quarterly earnings results from Wipro later in the day.

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The Sensex was trading at 57,478.80, up by 331.48  points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 57,085.92 and 57,575.16. On the index, only 22 stocks were advancing and 8 stocks were declining.

The broader indices were trading in green with the BSE Midcap index up by 0.09% and the Small-cap index down by 0.22%.

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The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.1%, Energy up by 0.71%, Auto up by 0.65%, IT up by 0.62%, Bankex up by 0.55%, while on the flip side, Capital Goods was down by 0.29%, Consumer Durables was down by 0.26%, Industrials was down by 0.13%.

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The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid Corporation of India Limited by 2.30%, Axis Bank by 1.82%%, NTPC Limited by 1.77%, HCL Technologies Limited by 1.82%% and Hindustan Uniliver Limited by 1.41%. On the flip side, Asian Paints Limited shed 1.55%,  Dr Reddy’s Lab 1.32%, ICICI Bank Limited 0.89%, Tata Steel Limited 0.65%, Maruti Suzuki India Limited 0.22%.

The Nifty was trading at 17,056.30, up by 72.75 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 16,960.05 and 17,105.40. On the index, 35 stocks were advancing against 15 stocks declining.

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The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid Corporation of India Limited up by 3.24%,  Bajaj Auto Limited up by 2.85%, Coal India Limited up by 2.59%, NTPC Limited up by 1.99% and Axis Bank up by 1.74%. Adani Enterprises Limited was down by 3.33%,  Asian Paints Limited was down by 1.50%,  Dr Reddy’s Lab was down by 1.49%, ICICI Bank Limited was down by 0.89%, Tata Steel Limited was down by 0.60% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly lower, Nikkei 225 was down 33.23 points or 0.13% to 26,368.02, Hang Seng decreased 363.35 points or 2.16% to 16,469.01, and Shanghai Composite declined 33.49 points or 1.12% to 2,946.30. On the flip side, KOSPI rose 4.26 points or 0.19% to 2,196.33.