Benchmarks come off day’s high; Nifty holds 8,500 mark

Benchmark equity indices have come off day’s high but manage to keep their head above water in afternoon deals. Overall sentiments remained up-beat after government dismissed the possibility of any material impact on the Indian economy from the developments in Greece, but it anticipates some impact on the rupee from investors pulling out in fear. Ongoing economic developments, progress of monsoons and a possibility of a rate cut too aided the sentiments. A further decline in crude oil prices and a strong rupee have also buoyed the trading sentiments. All eyes are set on the corporate earnings season which will kick off on July 9th with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announcing its Q1FY16 numbers.

On the global front, European counters have made a mixed start, CAC and FTSE were trading lower, while DAX was trading with a gain of around quarter of a percent. Asian markets were trading mostly in red at this point of time as investors remained worried by uncertainty hanging over the future of Greece and the European currency union. Back home, on the sectoral front, realty, consumer durables and healthcare witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while power, fast moving consumer goods and auto remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading with traction, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1672 shares on the gaining side against 830 shares on the losing side while 114 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28226.22, up by 17.46 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 28200.97 and 28335.23. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.57%, while Small cap index up by 0.78%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.02%, Consumer Durables up by 0.52%, Healthcare up by 0.46%, PSU up by 0.40% and Metal up by 0.38%, while Power down by 0.21%, FMCG down by 0.19%, Auto down by 0.05% and Infrastructure down by 0.02% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 2.04%, HDFC up by 1.93%, Wipro up by 1.63%, Sun Pharma up by 0.86% and SBI up by 0.70%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 2.39%, Vedanta down by 1.90%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.16%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.08% and Hindalco down by 1.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley assuring exporters of timely payment of tax refund has promised steps to boost shipments, as India's exports contracting for the sixth month in a row shrank by 20.19 per cent in May to $22.34 billion. In a meeting with FM, the delegation of exporters led by FIEO (Federation of Indian Export Organisations) President S C Ralhan expressed concern about declining exports, the tough global scenario and domestic trading constraints.

FIEO President urged the FM to increase liquidity for the sector and suggested a timely refund of duty drawback, CENVAT and service tax within 10 days, stating that order book position is not encouraging enough and impacts employment. He also wanted FM's intervention to immediately introduce the interest subsidy scheme from April 1 and sought market development support either through a planned scheme with sizeable corpus or tax deduction under income tax for overseas expenditure on marketing.

The FM, on its part, promised to look into the matter with a view to imparting competitiveness to exports. For agriculture exports, the Finance Minister agreed to look into the issue of providing support in respect of commodities in which MSP is much above international prices so as to provide an avenue for their exports.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8536.50, up by 14.35 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 8523.45 and 8561.35. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 3.45%, Coal India up by 2.13%, HDFC up by 1.98%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.66% and Wipro up by 1.60%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 2.46%, HCL Tech. down by 2.22%, Vedanta down by 2.14%, Hindalco down by 1.19% and Zee Entertainment down by 1.15% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; Hang Seng decreased 136.58 points or 0.54% to 25,099.70, Shanghai Composite declined 71.62 points or 1.9% to 3,704.30, Jakarta Composite shed 18.54 points or 0.38% to 4,898.20, KOSPI Index fall by 13.64 points or 0.66% to 2,040.29, Taiwan Weighted slipped 5.8 points or 0.06% to 9,250.16 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.99 points or 0.12% to 1,715.06. On the flip side, Straits Times increased 7.14 points or 0.21% to 3,340.08 and Nikkei 225 was up by 264.47 points or 1.31% to 20,376.59.

The European markets were trading mostly in red; France’s CAC dropped 0.11% and UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 0.15%, while Germany’s DAX was up by 0.23%.