Benchmarks continue to trade in green in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade modestly in green in early noon session on the back of fresh foreign capital inflows and renewed prospects of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank at its policy meet later this month, on the back of positive macroeconomic numbers, including easing inflation. Appreciation in the rupee too supported sentiment, the rupee edged higher by 11 paise to 65.62 against the US dollar in noon trade on Tuesday at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on increased selling of the American unit by exporters amid fresh foreign funds inflows. Some support also come with the Union Minister of State for Power, Piyush Goyal’s  statement that the US clean energy and financing companies must capitalise on the enormous opportunity in India’s clean energy market and has asked to come up with innovative ideas to address massive energy needs of the country.

 On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, following a positive handover from Wall Street. Back Home, at present, both Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 26,200 and 7,950 levels respectively. In scrip specific development, shares of Infosys are trading higher up by 2.70% after the company secured a three-year contract to develop and maintain all global web-based properties of not for profit enterprise TOMS Shoes for an undisclosed sum.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26267.04, up by 74.06 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 26218.44 and 26339.10. 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 0.40%, while Small cap index gained 0.78%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.84%, TECK up by 1.40%, Consumer Durables up by 1.20%, Realty up by 0.54% and FMCG up by 0.43%, while Metal down by 0.57%, Power down by 0.06%, Capital Goods down by 0.03% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 2.46%, Wipro up by 1.98%, ITC up by 0.92%, BHEL up by 0.92% and SBI up by 0.88%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.88%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.06%, NTPC down by 1.15%, Reliance Industries down by 1.13% and Coal India down by 0.76% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, union Minister of State for Power, Piyush Goyal at an event organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with the American Council on a Renewable Energy (ACORE) has said that the US clean energy and financing companies must capitalise on the enormous opportunity in India’s clean energy market and has asked to come up with innovative ideas to address massive energy needs of the country. Addressing the concern and challenges faced by investors in India, Goyal laid out the government's vision for achieving the ambitious target of 175 GW of clean energy by 2022.

He said that India offers tremendous investment opportunities to American energy firms and has asked to help come up with innovative solutions so as not to miss out on the tremendous opportunity in India which is set to become the largest clean energy market in the next 10 years.

Goyal said that government was looking for a long term and sustainable solution to the problem which will be implemented soon and told investors at the event that a number of stalled projects are also being cleared. CII and ACORE have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in order to bolster their partnership in the clean energy sector through facilitation of dialogues between industry experts, the development of platforms to deepen cooperation as well as platforms to exchange policy recommendations and best practices.

Sumant Sinha, chairman and CEO, Renew a Power Ventures said that $150 million of financing is required in the clean energy space of which $100 million will be debt and $50 million will be equity where US can play a big role in this space in India.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7990.90, up by 13.80 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 7979.65 and 8021.60. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 2.48%, Wipro up by 1.82%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.46%, HCL Tech. up by 1.14% and ITC up by 0.95%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.07%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.24%, Reliance Industries down by 1.43%, NTPC down by 1.26% and Yes Bank down by 1.26% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 17.38 points or 0.88% to 1,982.06, Straits Times increased 17.56 points or 0.61% to 2,899.83, Shanghai Composite increased 28.7 points or 0.91% to 3,185.24, Taiwan Weighted increased 58.88 points or 0.71% to 8,365.92 and Hang Seng increased 234.28 points or 1.08% to 21,991.21, while  Nikkei 225 decreased 362.06 points or 1.96% to 18,070.21, Jakarta Composite decreased 21.49 points or 0.49% to 4,354.59 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.77 points or 0.17% to 1,636.70.