Benchmarks continue to trade choppy in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade in a narrow range with Sensex and Nifty swinging between negative and positive territory. Investors remained on sidelines ahead of the corporate results season, which will be starting from today. The first quarter corporate results season will kick off today with TCS announcing its Q1 results. Traders are also eying Indian data i.e. consumer price inflation which is expected to nudge up slightly in June. Sentiments also remained dampened on reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 354.32 crore yesterday, as per provisional data by the stock exchanges. However, losses remained capped on reports of global agencies Standard & Poor’s and OECD who have said that India’s confidence level continues to grow  and the country is seeing “stable growth momentum.

On the global front, European markets have made a firm opening, CAC, DAX and FTSE all were trading with a gain of around half a percent. Asian markets were trading mostly in green at this point of time. Chinese stocks rallied after the securities regulator banned shareholders with large stakes in listed firms from selling, in Beijing's most drastic step yet to stem a sell-off that has roiled global financial markets. Back home, on the sectoral front, capital goods, consumer durables and power witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while software, oil and gas and technology remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices, however, were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1549 shares on the gaining side against 895 shares on the losing side while 93 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27651.74, down by 35.98 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 27625.81 and 27798.13. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.11%, while Small cap index up by 0.31%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.60%, Consumer Durables up by 0.75%, Power up by 0.62%, Healthcare up by 0.42% and Infrastructure up by 0.32%, while IT down by 1.09%, Oil & Gas down by 0.97%, TECK down by 0.63%, FMCG down by 0.36% and Auto down by 0.29% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.47%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.21%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.07%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.78% and Hindalco up by 1.57%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 2.53%, Tata Motors down by 1.69%, TCS down by 1.51%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.41% and Infosys down by 1.38% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Paris-based think tank the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has said that India is seeing “stable growth momentum” even as economic activities are expected to slow down in China, the US and many other major economies.

OECD, a grouping of 34 countries in its report for May, based on Composite leading indicators (CLIs), that are designed to anticipate turning points in economic activity relative to trend, has stated that India's CLI stood at 99.5 in May. Last month the grouping had pegged India's growth to remain “strong and stable” at 7.3 percent in 2015 on the back of revival in investments. It said that the indicators continue to point to firming growth in the euro area, including France and Italy, and to stable growth momentum in Germany, Japan and India. The OECD's composite leading indicator for its 34 members fell to 100.0 in May from 100.1 in April.

The grouping has also said that CLIs point to easing growth in the US, Canada, China as well as the UK, albeit from relatively high levels. The leading indicator for the US has fallen in each month this year, and now stands at 99.5, a level below 100.0, where it started the year. Leading indicator for China fell to 97.3 in May from 97.5 in April. However, it added that Russia is showing tentative signs of a positive change in growth momentum whereas in Brazil a loss in momentum is expected.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8351.15, down by 11.90 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 8343.55 and 8400.30. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 2.37%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.22%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.00%, PNB up by 1.90% and Bank of Baroda up by 1.78%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 3.35%, Vedanta down by 2.33%, Tata Motors down by 1.79%, TCS down by 1.55% and Infosys down by 1.37% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 5.63 points or 0.33% to 1,701.46, KOSPI Index increased 11.6 points or 0.58% to 2,027.81, Nikkei 225 gained 117.86 points or 0.6% to 19,855.50, Shanghai Composite added 222.21 points or 6.34% to 3,729.40 and Hang Seng was up by 949.82 points or 4.04% to 24,466.38.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted decreased 61.98 points or 0.69% to 8,914.13, Jakarta Composite declined 45.88 points or 0.94% to 4,825.69 and Straits Times was down by 8.18 points or 0.25% to 3,276.81.

European Markets were trading in the green; Germany’s DAX gained 0.44%, UK’s FTSE rose 0.24% and France’s CAC was up by 0.61%.