Benchmarks continue to trade higher in tight range in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade higher in tight-band in afternoon deals with a gain of around three fourth of a percent. Sentiments remained up-beat on reports that the Indian services industry bounced back to growth in July, although the rate of expansion was only marginal, the seasonally adjusted Nikkei Services Business Activity Index rose back above the 50.0 no-change mark in July, posting 50.8 from 47.7 in June. Better-than-expected Q1 earnings by Bharti Airtel buoyed the sentiment. The company has reported 40.22% rise in its consolidated net profit after minority interest of Rs 1554.30 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 as compared to Rs 1108.50 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

On the global front, European counters have made a firm start with CAC, DAX and FTSE all trading higher with a gain of around half a percent in early deals. Asian markets were trading mostly in green at this point of time as stabilisation in energy prices helped offset the uninspiring lead from Wall Street. Back home, stocks related to metal counter remained on buyers’ radar on reports that the government might impose import duty on long products and flat steel products to counter huge imports from China. Sugar companies too gained as government has made it compulsory for sugar mills to export millions of tonnes of surplus supplies to support local prices.

On the sectoral front, realty, software and auto witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while banking remained the lone loser on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1326 shares on the gaining side against 983 shares on the losing side while 112 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28282.25, up by 210.32 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 28135.68 and 28308.50. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.05%, while Small cap index up by 1.28%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 4.34%, IT up by 1.46%, Auto up by 1.39%, TECK up by 1.35% and FMCG up by 1.27%, while Bankex down by 0.06% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.78%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.72%, Infosys up by 2.05%, Vedanta up by 1.96% and Lupin up by 1.82%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 0.32%, SBI down by 0.29%, GAIL India down by 0.25% and ICICI Bank down by 0.16% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government is working on single window clearance system for import and export documents for reducing the time and cost involved in the export and import of goods and will improve ease of doing business. This will help the traders to avoid running from one department to another for clearing their document as they can now lodge their clearance documents at the single window itself, where 9-10 departments will be integrated in this system

The government is developing the system wherein the traders will have to fill a single application form and that will travel to the concerned departments for no-objection certificate (NOC). Further, Federation of Indian Exporter Organizations (FIEO) said that this step will help in reducing the transaction cost of traders.

Declining for the seventh month in a row, country's exports dipped to $22.28 billion by 15.82% in June as global slowdown took place and also due to  dip in crude oil prices which impacted shipments of petroleum products.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8579.60, up by 62.70 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 8545.85 and 8587.45. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.86%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.59%, Infosys up by 2.34%, Cairn India up by 2.17% and Lupin up by 2.08%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.95%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.99%, Yes Bank down by 0.97%, Bank of Baroda down by 0.58% and Coal India down by 0.42% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 1.77 points or 0.09% to 2,029.76, Straits Times rose 3.13 points or 0.1% to 3,194.17, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 5.17 points or 0.3% to 1,728.90, Jakarta Composite surged 23.17 points or 0.48% to 4,804.25, Taiwan Weighted added 31.41 points or 0.37% to 8,542.27, Nikkei 225 jumped 93.7 points or 0.46% to 20,614.06 and Hang Seng was up by 100.1 points or 0.41% to 24,506.22. 

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 36.46 points or 0.97% to 3,720.08.

European Markets were trading in the green; Germany’s DAX surged 0.77%, France’s CAC soared 0.84% and UK’s FTSE was up by 0.34%.