Benchmarks add gains; Realty, Bankex lead

Indian equity benchmarks added gains to continue their firm trade hovering near the highest point of the day in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counters and taking cues from global counterparts. The monsoon report is mainly driving the buying interest on the street. As per weather report, the monsoon delivered this season’s heaviest showers on Tuesday, drenching southern and central India with 50% more rainfall than normal. The sentiments also got a push after Ministry of Commerce and Industry stated that India’s exports grew by 10.22% to $26.4 billion in June this year while imports stood at $38.24 billion, up by 8.33%, leaving a trade deficit of $11.76 billion. Traders were seen piling up positions in Realty, Bankex and Oil & Gas while selling was witnessed in IT, Consumer Durables and FMCG sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Hindalco Industries was trading firm after foreign brokerage firm upgraded the stock to buy from underperform and raised its target price. NIIT Technologies was trading weak extending its yesterday’s fall after brokerages have lowered target price on the stock after its April-June quarter earnings disappointed the street on every parameter.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in green, while the European markets traded on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 7,550 and 25,300 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1768:979 while 105 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25350.55, up by 121.90 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 25377.99 and 25246.75. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index. The broader indices continued outperforming frontline indices; with BSE Mid cap index trading higher by 1.06%, while Small cap was up by 1.63%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.94%, Bankex up by 1.70%, Oil & Gas up by 0.99%, Auto up by 0.84% and Metal up by 0.45% while, IT down by 0.11% and Consumer Durables down by 0.02% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 3.82%, Axis Bank up by 2.59%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.92%, SBI up by 1.76% and Reliance Industries up by 1.58%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 2.35%, HDFC down by 1.47%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.30%, NTPC down by 0.62% and Cipla down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, receding pressure on country’s external sector, India’s merchandise exports grew at double digits for a second month in a row in June at 10.22% to $26.5 billion from 24 billion recorded in June 2013. However, India’s imports entered into the positive territory and grew by 8.33% to $38.24 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $11.76 billion which is higher than $11.23 billion in May and $11.28 billion in the corresponding month of previous fiscal year.

Oil imports rose 10.9% to $13.3 billion in June on account of increase in crude oil prices driven by Iraq crises, while non-oil imports that signal the health of domestic demand rose 7% to $24.9 billion. Further, the country’s gold imports were up by 65.13% to $3.12 billion in June from $1.88 billion in the same month last year.

During April-June period of FY15, Merchandise exports grew at 9.3% to $80.1 billion, while imports contracted 6.9% to $113.2 billion.  With the significant growth witnessed in country’s exports and contracting imports, India’s trade deficit during April-June ’FY15 contracted $33 billion as against $48.33 billion in the same period of previous fiscal year. Reviving demand in global markets is likely to provide further impetus to India’s overseas shipments in near future.

The Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) governs all exports and imports related activities in India and primarily aims at enhancing the country's exports. The five-year FTP (2009-14) ended on March 31 and the new government will soon introduce new FTP for the period 2014-19. The new FTP is likely to promote exports of specific products in specific geographies like SEZs and would also focus more on areas like branding of products in the global markets, exports of services and hi-tech products and new strategy for marketing.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7564.20, up by 37.55 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 7571.35 and 7532.45. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were IDFC up by 7.47%, ICICI Bank up by 3.79%, DLF up by 3.07%, Axis Bank up by 2.55% and Hindalco up by 1.92%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 2.28%, HDFC down by 1.53%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.25%, SSLT down by 0.64% and Asian Paints down by 0.64% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index rising by 0.04%, Straits Times gained 0.29%; Hang Seng gaining 0.27%; Jakarta Composite surging by 0.82% and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 0.02%.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was trading lower by 0.88%; Nikkei 225 sliding by 0.10% and Shanghai Composite declining by 0.15%.

The European markets were trading in green; Germany’s DAX was up by 1.00%, France’s CAC 40 jumped 1.24% while, UK’s FTSE 100 was added 0.76%.