Benchmarks trade near intraday highs; Sensex recaptures 26,900 mark

Extending their northward journey, Indian equity benchmarks are trading near intraday high levels, recapturing their crucial 26,900 (Sensex) and 8,250 (Nifty) levels in noon deals despite the Reserve Bank keeping the interest rate unchanged. The RBI’s decision to keep key interest rate unchanged was largely in line with investor expectations and did not have much immediate positive impact. Sentiments remained up-beat primarily on the back of firm global cues. Asian markets are trading jubilantly at this point of time after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said US interest rate hikes are likely on the way, held back any reference to the timing. Firm opening in European counters too were providing some support to domestic markets.

Back home, appreciation in Indian rupee too aided sentiments. The rupee strengthened by 22 paise to 66.74 in the noon deals on sustained selling of dollar by banks and exporters, strong foreign fund inflows. On the sectoral front, mining and metal stocks remained on buyers’ radar amid a global rally in base metal prices after the US dollar fell to a three-week low against a basket of global currencies. Banking counters too were trading in green, as Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha has said that the government will examine the capital requirements of various public sector banks (PSBs) for the current fiscal to meet credit growth and NPA provisioning.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26937.79, up by 160.34 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 26829.53 and 26946.28. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 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 up by 0.71%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.10%, Basic Materials up by 1.07%, Bankex up by 1.06%, Metal up by 1.04% and Realty up by 0.94% while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 2.88%, SBI up by 2.34%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.75%, Sun Pharma up by 1.64% and Tata Steel up by 1.18%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 0.34%, HDFC down by 0.34%, Axis Bank down by 0.32%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.22% and Tata Motors down by 0.16% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India's steel imports falling for the second month in May, of the current financial year plunged to the lowest level in last 14 months, after the government imposed restrictions to stop purchases of cheaper overseas supplies. According to the data by Steel Ministry’s Joint Plant Committee (JPC), India, the world's third-largest steel producer imported 0.546 million tonnes (MT) of finished steel in May, nearly 41 percent lower than the same month of last year.

As per the data released by JPC, the imports were down 17 per cent sequentially, compared to that in April 2016. In April too, steel imports were down by 15.5 per cent year-on-year at 0.654 MT. In May 2016, total finished steel output was lower by 0.9 per cent to 8.28 MT compared to the same period last year. In April-May, steel production grew by 2.4 per cent to 15.97 MT. Steel demand in May 2016 was higher by 4 per cent to 7.56 MT against May 2015 and was up by 31 per cent over April 2016.

The report further highlighted that the export of total finished steel in May 2016 was up by 6 per cent to 0.38 MT over May 2015 and was higher by 23 per cent over April 2016. In April- May period, exports of total finished steel were down by 11.7 per cent at 0.689 mt over the corresponding same period previous year.

Steel imports are on a decline following a number of steps by the government to check cheap shipments of the commodity from countries like China amid demand slowdown. In February, the government imposed minimum import price restrictions on steel products to check inward shipments, besides imposing safeguard duties last year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8264.25, up by 63.20 points or 0.77% after trading in a range of 8216.40 and 8266.80. There were 45 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 2.90%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.53%, SBI up by 2.44%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.21% and Hindalco up by 1.97%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 1.06%, Bharti Infratel down by 0.63%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 0.51%, HDFC down by 0.41% and Eicher Motors down by 0.41% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 2.87 points or 0.1% to 2,936.97, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 8.64 points or 0.52% to 1,657.63, KOSPI Index surged 25.79 points or 1.3% to 2,011.63, Jakarta Composite increased 29.94 points or 0.61% to 4,925.97, Taiwan Weighted jumped 82.79 points or 0.96% to 8,679.90, Nikkei 225 added 95.42 points or 0.58% to 16,675.45 and Hang Seng was up by 255.76 points or 1.22% to 21,285.98.

European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC increased 18.93 points or 0.43% to 4,442.31, UK’s FTSE 100 gained 22.6 points or 0.36% to 6,296.00 and Germany’s DAX was up by 68.74 points or 0.68% to 10,189.82.