Benchmarks hold modest gains after recovering from day’s low

After recovering from day’s low, benchmark equity indices were holding their head above water and trading up with modest gains of around 0.11-0.20%, on emergence of buying by funds and retail investors in select stocks. Sentiment on the street improved with an OECD report that Indian economy saw the “strongest growth” in the first quarter of 2015 among large economies, including China, the US, Germany and Canada. Besides, firm global cues coupled with the appreciation in rupee value against the dollar added to the optimistic sentiments. Some support also came with the report that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be meeting the heads of PSU banks to review their performance and bad loans situation as also to persuade them to pass on Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI's) rate cut benefit to borrowers for propping growth. However, gains remained capped as some investors started scaling down their positions ahead of IIP and inflation data to be released later in the day amid sustained capital outflows. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 622.89 crore on June 11, 2015.

On global front, Asian share markets made guarded gains as the sentiment was bolstered by a solid rise in U.S. retail sales which, combined with upward revisions, suggested the economy was warming nicely after a chilly start to the year. However, investors remained cautious as Greek debt talks took yet another confusing turn. Back home, Indian rupee recovered by 5 paise to trade at 63.92 against the US dollar in early trade on fresh selling of the American currency by exporters.

Back on street, stocks from Oil & Gas, FMCG and IT counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from Metal, Realty and Infrastructure counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, Shares of Unitech have surgeed on plan to raise around Rs 200 crore from private equity players. Furthermore, Bajaj Electricals rose after the company bagged 3 new orders from Odisha Power Transmission Corporation worth Rs 84.54 crore.

The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2038 stocks traded, 874 stocks advanced, while 1086 stocks declined on the BSE. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26422.86, up by 51.88 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 26307.56 and 26460.64. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.18%, while Small cap index down by 0.30%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.61%, FMCG up by 0.45%, IT up by 0.40%, TECK up by 0.31% and PSU up by 0.05%, while Metal down by 1.18%, Realty down by 0.89%, Infrastructure down by 0.47%, Consumer Durables down by 0.24% and Auto down by 0.18% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 1.71%, Reliance Industries up by 1.17%, BHEL up by 1.07%, Infosys up by 0.98% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.94%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 2.02%, Hindalco down by 1.89%, Tata Motors down by 1.29%, Sun Pharma down by 1.01% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.82% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Paris based think tank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has said that Indian economy saw the “strongest growth” in the first quarter of 2015 among large economies, including China, the US, Germany and Canada. Apart from India, economic growth rose in Turkey, Japan, Australia and Korea.

OECD's quarterly GDP numbers for G-20 countries, which were calculated based on a new methodology, said that overall GDP growth in the G-20 area was slightly lower at 0.7% during the January-March period. In the 2014 December quarter, the region had seen an overall expansion of 0.8%. The data compiled by the grouping however showed that GDP contracted in Canada (by 0.1%), the US (by 0.2%), and Brazil (by 0.2%), following positive growth of 0.6%, 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively, in the previous quarter. In China and Indonesia, GDP growth slowed slightly to 1.3% and 1.1%, respectively, compared with 1.5% and 1.2%, respectively, in the previous quarter.

The grouping further noted that GDP growth accelerated in Turkey to 1.3%, compared with 0.8% in the previous quarter, in Japan and Korea to 1% and 0.8%, respectively, compared with 0.3%, and in Australia to 0.9%, compared with 0.5%, while within the European group of G20 economies, economic growth accelerated in France and Italy to 0.6% and 0.3%, respectively.

OECD in its latest economic outlook had said that global growth will gradually strengthen towards its pre-crisis trend rate by late 2016 as activity becomes more evenly shared across the major economies and overall external imbalances are less marked than in the run-up to 2007.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7973.85, up by 8.50 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 7940.85 and 7987.85. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Power up by 2.00%, Asian Paints up by 1.34%, Infosys up by 1.17%, Reliance Industries up by 1.13% and BPCL up by 1.04%. On the flip side, Ambuja Cement down by 2.86%, Vedanta down by 2.31%, Hindalco down by 1.93%, NMDC down by 1.82% and Bank of Baroda down by 1.78% were the top losers.

Asian markets were mostly trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.13%, Straits Times increased 0.18%, Jakarta Composite increased 0.2%, Shanghai Composite increased 0.44% and Hang Seng increased 0.66%. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 down by 0.25%, Taiwan Weighted decreased 0.12% and KOSPI Index decreased 0.29%.