Benchmarks continue to trade in narrow range with positive bias

After getting a negative start, Indian equity benchmarks were neither showing joy nor weakness, altering between positive and negative territory as investors remained sideways in the absence of any significant trigger at domestic front ahead of US employment data that may help determine whether the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates in near future. The key indices were now trading flat with bit of positive bias on increasing buying by funds and retail investors in select stocks. Sentiments got some support with finance minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that conditions in India are favourable for further interest rate cuts due to low global commodity prices as well as prospects of good summer crops. Some support also came with Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya's statement that pension fund could invest more into equities in the next fiscal year starting April by raising the current limit set at 5 per cent of total investable assets. However, gains remained capped on report that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) stated that the rainfall was below normal by 26 percent over the country during the period from 30 July to 5 August 2015.

On global front, Asian shares were trading mixed with investors awaiting the release of US employment data that may help determine whether the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates in near future.  share markets got a negative lead from Wall Street, where a major sell-off in media equities following disappointing earnings reports from Viacom and 21st Century Fox pushed US stocks lower Thursday. Back home, Indian rupee was marginally down by 2 paise at Rs 63.79 against the dollar in early trade due to appreciation of the US currency overseas.

Back on street, stocks from Oil & Gas, Power and PSU counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from Realty, Banking and Consumer Durables counters was adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, shares of Oracle Financial Services Software have rallied after the company reported a 43% jump in consolidated net profit, on a sequential basis, at Rs 329 crore for the quarter ended June 2015. On the flip side, shares of Jaypee Infratech have declined after the company reported a fall of 43.23% in its net profit at Rs 26.09 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 as compared to Rs 45.96 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2392 stocks traded, 1387 stocks advanced, while 910 stocks declined on the BSE. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28312.70, up by 14.57 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 28240.33 and 28335.67. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.28%, while Small cap index up by 0.51%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.49%, Power up by 0.42%, PSU up by 0.29%, IT up by 0.19% and Infrastructure up by 0.18%, while Realty down by 0.72%, Bankex down by 0.27%, Consumer Durables down by 0.23%, Metal down by 0.15% and TECK down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.64%, Vedanta up by 2.17%, Reliance Industries up by 1.39%, Tata Motors up by 1.33% and GAIL India up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.10%, SBI down by 1.02%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.82%, TCS down by 0.61% and ITC down by 0.57% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in the first quarter of current financial year, Indian companies have raised a massive Rs 1,72,818 crore from the markets as compared to Rs 72,085 crore same quarter of previous year. It was more than double the amount garnered in the year- ago period. Of total, Rs 1,42,334 crore has been raised via debt market, while Rs 30,484 crore was mopped up through equity route. The companies have raised the said funds mainly for expansion of business plans and to support working capital requirements.

In the equity segment, majority of the funds of Rs 17,398 crore were raised through preferential route, followed by rights issue Rs 7,498 crore, qualified institutional placements Rs 3,265 crore and initial public offers Rs 2,324 crore. Within the debt market, the companies raked in Rs 1,41,624 crore through debt placement route, while just Rs 710 crore was raised via public issuance of debt securities.

In the April- June quarter of current financial year, companies preferred debt route over equity for mobilizing money, while in the equity segment, most of the fresh capital were raised through preferential allotment and rights issue.  In the last financial year, companies had raised a total of Rs 4.80 lakh crore from equity and debt markets as compared to Rs 3.92 lakh crore raked in the preceding financial year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8590.95, up by 2.30 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 8568.90 and 8595.95. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 2.49%, Vedanta up by 2.37%, Reliance Industries up by 1.38%, Cairn India up by 1.18% and Tata Motors up by 1.16%. On the flip side, Bank of Baroda down by 1.87%, SBI down by 1.49%, Coal India down by 1.19%, PNB down by 0.99% and HCL Tech down by 0.87% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Straits Times was up by 0.17%, Nikkei 225 up by 0.07% up by, Shanghai Composite up by 1.9% and Hang Seng up by 0.92%. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.67%, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.25%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI down by 0.79% and KOSPI Index down by 0.21%.