Benchmarks continue to trade higher in noon deals; Nifty holds 8,200 mark

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade in fine fettle in afternoon deals with Nifty trading above its crucial 8,200 mark, while Sensex was trading tad below its crucial 27,300 mark. Sentiments remained up-beat since beginning after the Federal Reserve refrained from providing any specific time for raising interest rates. Some support also came in with the good progress of monsoon in the country, a top Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) official has reportedly said that monsoon is expected to be normal in June boosting sowing of kharif crops but there are concerns about pick up in rainfall in the next month. Further, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the reforms introduced in next 2-3 years will help India achieve growth rate targets higher than its current levels of 7-7.5%.

On the global front, European counters have made a weak start, where CAC and FTSE were trading in red, while DAX was keeping its head above water. All the Asian markets, barring Chinese Shanghai were trading in the green at this point of time. China’s benchmark sank again on worries over the potential impact of a flurry of initial public offerings and moves by regulators to curb margin trading. Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too equally participated in the rally. On the sectoral front, oil and gas, metal and capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while realty, power and consumer durables remained the few losers on the BSE sectoral space. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,310 shares on the gaining side against 1,041 shares on the losing side while 148 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27281.10, up by 165.27 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 27202.38 and 27350.56. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.60%, while Small cap index up by 0.39%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.91%, Metal up by 0.79%, Capital Goods up by 0.69%, PSU up by 0.63% and FMCG up by 0.60%, while Realty down by 0.25%, Power down by 0.17% and Consumer Durables down by 0.04% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.51%, HDFC up by 2.08%, ONGC up by 1.87%, Hindalco up by 1.79% and Wipro up by 1.50%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.54%, BHEL down by 0.90%, GAIL India down by 0.85%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.57% and Sun Pharma down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, monsoon defying the El Nino effect is gathering pace with farmers benefitting from an increase in monsoon rains. IMD Director has though said that monsoon is expected to be normal in June boosting sowing of kharif crops but there are concerns about pick up in rainfall in the next month. Forecast of normal rains in June would encourage sowing of the kharif crop, particularly in central India

A better-than-expected start to the monsoon in an El Nino year has eased concerns of dry weather fuelling inflation in the country. Rainfall has been 11 percent more than the average till June 18 and farmers in irrigated areas have started sowing. The progress in monsoon will help sowing to gather pace in rainfed areas. Though, IMD has warned that South-West monsoon rainfall will be weaker in July, when it is expected to be 92 percent of the long-period average, and in August, when it will be 90 percent.

The met department has been predicting the monsoon's progress into some more parts of central and east India for the past few days. But barring Kerala, coastal Karnataka and some areas of the Northeast, rains have been good in regions covered so far by the rain system.

Agriculture Ministry's data has revealed that till last week of the kharif season, farmers have sown various crops like paddy in 75.10 lakh hectares compared with 82.27 lakh hectare in the year-ago period. Farmers depend on the monsoon, which accounts for more than 70% of annual rainfall, to grow crops and produce hydro- electricity, and for drinking water.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8214.00, up by 39.40 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 8195.65 and 8235.50. There were 36 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.50%, ONGC up by 2.00%, HDFC up by 1.86%, Hindalco up by 1.75% and Wipro up by 1.56%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.54%, Power Grid down by 1.37%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.34%, BHEL down by 1.13% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.68% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; Straits Times rose 4.15 points or 0.13% to 3,304.57, KOSPI Index gained 5.08 points or 0.25% to 2,046.96, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 5.85 points or 0.34% to 1,723.97, Taiwan Weighted advanced 28.54 points or 0.31% to 9,218.37, Jakarta Composite added 38.27 points or 0.77% to 4,983.77, Hang Seng surged 140.13 points or 0.52% to 26,834.79, Nikkei 225 was up by 183.42 points or 0.92% to 20,174.24. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 307.61 points or 6.43% to 4,477.75.

European Markets were trading mostly in the red; France’s CAC lost 0.04% and UK’s FTSE was down by 0.22%. However, Germany’s DAX was up by 0.41%.