Benchmarks trade in green; Nifty above 7700 mark

Indian equity benchmarks trimmed losses and started trading in green in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counters. The sentiments improved after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told parliament that India’s 1.2 billion people were exasperated after two years of economic growth below 5%. He vowed that Asia’s third largest economy would expand at an annual rate of 7-8% within three to four years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new government unveiled a budget and stated that it can revive growth after the longest slowdown in a quarter of a century even while curbing borrowing. Traders were seen piling up positions in Realty, Power and India Infrastructure Index, while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy was locked at upper circuit limit after its bondholders approved the proposed restructuring of existing bonds including the terms and conditions of the new FCCBs.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in green, while the European markets traded on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 7,700 and 25,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1719:960 while 86 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25842.70, up by 397.89 points or 1.56% after trading in a range of 25920.46 and 25117.00. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 2.31%, while Small cap index was up 2.39%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 8.59%, Power up by 3.35%, India Infrastructure Index up 3.28%, Metal up 3.17% and PSU up by 2.86% while, Consumer Durables down by 0.47% Was the sole losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco Industries up by 5.12%, Tata Power up by 4.96%, ICICI Bank up by 3.63%, Coal India up by 3.17% and BHEL up by 3.14%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.03%, TCS down by 0.92% and ITC down by 0.15% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, concerned over the rising food inflation in the country, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has asserted that the government will control price rise despite below normal monsoon. Food Minister has said that there is no shortage of supplies and the government has already initiated measures to deal with hoarders and black-marketers. To restrain rising food inflation in the country, the government has recently taken measures such as de-listing of fruits and vegetables from Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act, bringing onion and potato under the Essential Commodities Act, fixing minimum export price of $500 per tonne and $450 per tonne on export of onion and potato respectively. Further, an additional 50 lakh tonnes of rice has been allocated for distribution towards Below Poverty Line (BPL).

Food inflation can increase in near term as weak monsoon rains would impact the performance of Indian agriculture sector. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had highlighted that southwest monsoon may remain below normal with the country likely to receive 93 percent of the long-period average (LPA) rainfall.

Till June 17, the country has received 45 percent less rainfall in the first spell. WPI inflation rose to five month high at 6.01% y-o-y in the month of May as against 5.20% in April. Inflation in food articles increased by 9.50% y-o-y in May as compared to 8.64% in April.     

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7706.65, up by 121.75 points or 1.61% after trading in a range of 7731.05 and 7479.05. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were DLF up by 12.16%, IDFC up by 10.90%, Hindalco up by 5.42%, Tata Power up by 5.10% and Jindal Steel up by 5.01%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.64%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.60%, TCS down by 1.06%, Asian Paints down by 0.37% and ITC down by 0.18% were the only losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index rose by 0.12%, Straits Times added 0.05%, Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.79%, Hang Seng gained 0.27% and Jakarta Composite increased 1.16%.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 slid 0.56%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI lost 0.02% and Shanghai Composite was trading down 0.01%.

The European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX lost 0.51%, France’s CAC 40 dropped 0.49% while, UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 0.10%.