Benchmarks trade off day’s lows in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks have pared most of their losses in noon trade after witnessing sharp slump in the late morning deals. Sentiments remained down-beat after Rajya Sabha once again getting adjourned today. The upper house could not transact any business for the second successive day on Wednesday as treasury and opposition benches stuck to their positions, with opposition parties aggressively pressing for the resignation of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj along with Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh chief ministers. Depreciation in Indian rupee too dampened the sentiments. The rupee weakened 7 paise to 63.65 against the US dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange following gains in the American currency against major currencies globally.

On the global front, European counters have made a firm start with CAC, DAX and FTSE, all trading with a gain of over half a percent. Asian markets were trading mostly in green at this point of time with Japanese market trading higher by around half a percent after country’s exports increased the most in five months in June, boosted by growth in automobile and electronic parts. Back home, on the sectoral front, consumer durables, oil and gas and realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while banking, FMCG and metal 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 1,477 shares on the gaining side against 1,064 shares on the losing side while 106 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28467.03, down by 37.90 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 28385.20 and 28578.33. There were 12 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index while 2 stocks remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.13%, while Small cap index up by 0.79%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.51%, Oil & Gas up by 0.76%, Realty up by 0.69%, Auto up by 0.65% and IT up by 0.38%, while Bankex down by 0.47%, FMCG down by 0.31%, Metal down by 0.18%, Power down by 0.17% and Capital Goods down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.25%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.13%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.69%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.14% and Infosys up by 0.99%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 3.44%, Tata Steel down by 3.10%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.60%, ONGC down by 1.30% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.22% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to boost the food processing sector, the government has approved 13 proposals for setting up of mega food parks, which provides different facilities to food processors, farmers, retailers and exporters in various parts of the country including rural areas, during the current Five Year Plan period. Consequently, each of these mega food parks is likely to create direct and indirect employment for about 30,000 persons. These mega food parks are currently in the process of implementation.

The states where these mega food parks will come up are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand (one each) and Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra (two each). 

Earlier, the government had approved some modifications in the guidelines of the mega food park scheme to increase investment in the food processing sector. The modifications, which include allowing the central government agencies to hold more than 26% equity in the mega food park, would streamline the implementation of the scheme.

In March 2015, the government had allocated the development of 17 mega food parks across the country to state governments and private firms at a cost of Rs 2,030 crore, of which the central government grant was estimated at Rs 850 crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8618.40, down by 15.10 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 8589.95 and 8654.75. There were 21 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cairn India up by 7.01%, Tata Motors up by 2.49%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.18%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.69% and BPCL up by 1.10%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 3.55%, Tata Steel down by 3.12%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.95%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.74% and Grasim Industries down by 1.38% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 0.34 points or 0.02% to 2,065.07, Straits Times gained 13.44 points or 0.4% to 3,372.61, Nikkei 225 rose 90.28 points or 0.44% to 20,683.95, Shanghai Composite surged 103.26 points or 2.56% to 4,129.31 and Hang Seng was up by 161.77 points or 0.64% to 25,444.39.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted declined 127.58 points or 1.43% to 8,791.12, Jakarta Composite decreased 3.82 points or 0.08% to 4,902.87 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.41 points or 0.02% to 1,729.12.

European Markets were trading in the green; Germany’s DAX gained 0.69%, France’s CAC surged 0.54% and UK’s FTSE was up by 0.65%.