Benchmarks pair some early gains in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks paired some early gains and were trading in a narrow range with a positive bias in late morning session led by gains in Auto, Consumer Durables and infra stocks amid expectations of encouraging IIP data for June to be released later in the day. Besides, firm global cues coupled with the appreciation in rupee value against the dollar added to the optimistic sentiments. Some support also came in after Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has said that India’s economic growth is gaining momentum and the country is poised for better growth. However, gains remained capped on report that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 162.92 crore on August 11, 2014. At present, Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 25,650 and 7,650 levels respectively, with gains of over 0.45%.

In scrip specific development, shares of Tata Motors have rallied as much as 6% after reporting a robust 213% year-on-year (y-o-y) jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 5,398 crore for the quarter ended June 2014. Besides, Eicher Motors has surged after reporting a more-than-double standalone net profit at Rs 133 crore for the quarter ended June 2014, on back of strong sales. on the flip side, shares of Divi’s Laboratories have fell over 3% after reporting 3.8% decline in its net profit to Rs.167.93 crore in June quarter as compared to Rs 174.71 crore last year same quarter.

On global front, Asian markets edged higher in early trade tracking rallies in the US and Europe as investors seemed to put aside geopolitical concerns, at least for the moment. Besides, Shanghai shares retreated from a eight-month high ahead of China's July lending and industrial production data this week. Back home, Indian rupee opened marginally strong at 61.16 per dollar against the previous close of 61.18 a dollar due to strong inflows in the domestic equity market and dollar sales by exporters. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2226 stocks traded, 1306 stocks advanced, while 830 stocks declined on the BSE. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25679.78 up by 160.54 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 25744.51 and 25657.85. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.31%, while Small cap index gained 0.56%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.49%, Consumer Durables up by 1.34%, PSU up by 1.17%, Oil & Gas up by 1.04% and Infrastructure up by 0.96%, while IT was down by 0.38%, TECk was down by 0.36% and FMCG was down by 0.13% were the few losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 5.99%, Gail India up by 4.05%, ONGC up by 2.58%, HDFC up by 2.35% and NTPC up by 2.25%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.33%, M&M was down by 1.18%, BHEL  was down by 1.08%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.81% and SSLT was down by 0.54% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its latest report has stated that Indian economic growth is gaining momentum, on the back of various measures taken by the government to bolster the economy. The Composite leading indicators (CLIs), designed to anticipate turning points in economic activity relative to trend, for India inched up to 99.2 in June from 98.9 in May, indicating that economy is likely to see better expansion rate in the coming months. India's economic growth stayed below 5 percent for the second year in a row at 4.7 percent during FY14.

On global front, the OECD stated that growth momentum in most major economies is stable as CLI covering 33 member countries remained unchanged in June at 100.5, above its long-term average of 100. For the major emerging economies, the CLIs indicate growth around trend in China and Russia and below trend in Brazil, while the CLI for India points to growth gaining momentum.

The CLIs for the United States, United Kingdom and Canada continue to point to stable growth momentum. However, the CLI for Japan points to an interruption in the growth momentum as the leading indicator declined to 100.1 in June from 100.4 in the previous month. In the Euro Area, the CLI suggests growth losing momentum in Germany, whereas in Italy the CLI continues to indicate a positive growth momentum.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,663.45 up by 37.50 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 7,691.45 and 7,657.50. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 6.17%, GAIL up by 4.01%, ONGC up by 2.44%, NTPC up by 2.13% and Coal India up by 2.11%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.38%, M&M down by 1.12%, BHEL down by 1.02%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.69% and HCL Tech down by 0.68% were the major losers on the index.

Most of Asian markets were trading in the green; Nikkei 225 spurted by 0.21%, KOSPI Index gained 0.06%, Straits Times added 0.27%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained by  0.01% and Jakarta Composite was up by 0.43%. On the flip side, Hang Seng slipped by 0.13%, Shanghai Composite tumbled by 0.21% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.11%.