Indian Shares Made It Three Consecutive Days Of Gains Amid Global Slowdown Concerns

May 24, 2022

India’s Wednesday session saw shares rise for a third consecutive day at the start of last week. Gains in certain financial and IT stocks were behind the latest rise, but investors continue to be concerned about the threat to global economic growth presented by interest rate hikes.

The NSE Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) was up by 0.67%  at 16,368.30. The majority of the major sub-indexes were trading in the positive. The S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) was up 0.44% at 54,554,89.

Notable Movers

One of the top percentage gainers on the Nifty 50 was Bharti Airtel (BRTI.NS), a telecoms operator. Late on Tuesday, they reported an impressive 22.3% jump in revenue for the fourth quarter.

Other top gainers on the Nifty 50 included Infosys (INFY.NS) and Bajaj Finance (BJFN.NS), each of which rose more than 1%.

At the other end of the spectrum, cigarettes to hotel conglomerate ITC (ITC.NS) went down by 0.15%. Meanwhile, airline operator InterGlobe Aviation (INGL.NS) rose by 4.2% in advance of their quarterly earnings report.

Of the sub-indexes of the Nifty 50, it was the IT index that advances the most, with a rise of 1.3%.

Concerns Of A Downturn

While India is showing good numbers at the moment, broader Asia is struggling to keep carrying recent gains. Concerns about surges in inflation and the drag that comes with rising rates are creeping back into the global growth outlook.

In the USA, the Chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, recently pledged that the US Central Bank would hike interest rates as required to counter the surge in inflation. This is something that is likely to be echoed around the world, and will come with the economic woes of slower growth and higher unemployment, but the goal is to stave off recession.

Thoughts From Economists

There is division among the experts about how this situation will pan out. There are those who believe inflation will collapse on its own and those who agree that central banks need to take action and raise rates.

This is an important time for traders to keep a watchful eye on developments and analyse the possible impact of rate rises. The markets are sure to reflect what we are seeing with inflation around the world, so be vigilant.