Benchmarks continue to hold their head above water

After positive opening, benchmarks continued to hold their head above water on sustained and selective buying by funds and retail investors, backed up by a solid trend at other Asian markets on hopes of an agreement over Greece, and overnight gains in US markets. Sentiments got a boost with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India is no longer satisfied being in the 6 to 8 percent growth. It wants to transcend to another level and aim for 8 to 10 percent growth. Some support also came after India Meteorological Department (IMD) reported better than normal monsoon figure in the month of June. Besides, revival of buying by foreign funds after remaining sellers for several sessions supported the upside. The foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 75.03 crore on July 01, 2015. However, gains remained capped with the report that global rating agency Fitch lowered India’s economic growth projections to 7.8 per cent for the current fiscal from 8 per cent on pick up in demand.

On global front, Asian stocks were trading higher as strong U.S. payroll data overshadowed worries about Greek debt. Overnight, the US markets had ended higher on the back of better-than-expected economy data and hopes of a resolution between Greece and its creditors. Back home, Indian rupee fell by 5 paise to 63.66 against the US dollar in early trade due to appreciation of the American unit against other currencies overseas on the back of strong US economic data.

Back on street, stocks from Oil & Gas, Realty and Auto counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from Metal, IT and Consumer Durablescounters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, shares of Ashok Leyland have surged after the company reported a 41% year-on-year (yoy) increase in total sales of commercial vehicles at 10,461 units in June 2015. Furthermore, shares of Vakrangee have surged after the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) hiked their stake in the company by two percentage points in April-June 2015 quarter. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2146 stocks traded, 1397 stocks advanced, while 665 stocks declined on the BSE. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28050.25, up by 29.38 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 27961.08 and 28115.96. 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 0.75%, while Small cap index up by 0.91%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.19%, Realty up by 1.02%, Auto up by 0.70%, FMCG up by 0.52% and PSU up by 0.41%, while Metal down by 0.27%, IT down by 0.15% and Consumer Durables down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 1.99%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.86%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.36%, Reliance Industries up by 0.93% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.80%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.01%, HDFC Bank down by 0.93%, Tata Motors down by 0.66%, Infosys down by 0.51% and ONGC down by 0.51% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has once again pitched for a higher growth of 8 to 10 percent to eradicate poverty, said the country is no more satisfied with the current rate. Jaitley said “India is no longer satisfied being in the 6 to 8 percent growth. It wants to transcend to another level and aim for 8 to 10 percent growth...We wish to grow faster because we have a huge challenge of eradicating poverty ahead of us.”

Jaitely stating ‘Digital India’ initiative will help in bridging the gap between rich and poor said that this initiative will empower India by utilising the technology to the foremost. He said that over the next few years, “we will see more banking done through the Internet, done through payment gateways rather than brick and mortar branches of banks”.

Finance Minister added that in a period of less than five months, we were able to open 160 million Jan Dhan accounts. The Direct Benefit Transfer extends to almost 130 million people and achieved in a matter of few months. 110 million insurance policies started within a period of less than five weeks and now it will be the government’s effort to make ‘Digital India’ a way of life and governance in India.

He said that Technology would also play a key role in other sectors such as education, media, justice delivery system and healthcare. The economy grew at 7.3 per cent in 2014-15 and the government has targeted GDP growth between 7.5 per cent and 8 per cent for the current financial year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8463.35, up by 10.30 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 8437.20 and 8477.50. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.02%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.89%, BPCL up by 1.66%, Idea Cellular up by 1.59% and Bosch up by 1.54%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.33%, Coal India down by 1.08%, HDFC Bank down by 1.04%, Power Grid down by 0.81% and Grasim Industries down by 0.80% were the top losers.

Asian markets were mostly trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 0.44%, Straits Times up by 0.08%, KOSPI Index up by 0.3%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.04%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.75%, Hang Seng up by 0.49% and Nikkei 225 up by 1.13%. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 1.86%.