Market pare early losses to trade higher in late noon deal

Indian equity benchmarks have pared their early losses and are trading in green in late noon session on revival of buying by investors in the blue chips counters. Sentiment remain upbeat with the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India continues to maintain a high growth rate even in times of difficult global conditions and is sticking with its agenda of reforms push and infrastructure creation. Markets were also drawing some comfort with the Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian’s statement that Brexit, or Britain's exit from the European Union, was a sad development but India would not be affected by it due to India’s solid macroeconomics. There was some cautiousness in the market as the monthly derivatives contract expiry is slated on Thursday.

On global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red and the British pound tumbled more than 2 percent on Monday as markets grappled with deep uncertainty sparked by Britain's decision to leave the European Union.

Back home, IT stocks were witnessing selling pressure, at the same time buying was seen in realty, healthcare, oil & gas, FMCG and banking shares.

In scrip specific development, TTML was trading up after it decided to raise Rs 3,000 crore from its promoter Tata Teleservices through allotment of preferential equities.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26435.65, up by 37.94 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 26298.87 and 26445.46. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.76%, while Small cap index added 1.44%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.74%, FMCG up by 1.47%, Oil & Gas up by 1.47%, Capital Goods up by 1.10%, PSU up by 0.99% while, IT down by 1.51%, TECK down by 1.37%, Auto down by 0.13% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 1.96%, ITC up by 1.73%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.42%, Adani Ports &Special up by 1.36% and Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.07%. On the flip side, TCS drop by 3.06%, Infosys down by 1.56%, Power Grid Corpn decline by 1.38%, Wipro low by 0.97% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.86% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India is identifying basket of projects worth $2-3 billion that could be funded by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in the areas of urban development, including smart cities, urban transport, energy, inland waterways and water supply. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that India has a huge unmet demand for investment in infrastructure and is preparing a basket of projects for AIIB funding.

Jaitley has made the offer to open a regional office of China-led lender AIIB branch a regional office in New Delhi (India) to effectively cater to potentially large portfolio and speed up the process of project development, monitoring and implementation. Stating the importance of AIIB, Jaitley said that AIIB presents a much-needed additional financing window dedicated to infrastructure projects and meeting the financing gap that may be beyond the capacity of the individual countries and the existing MDBs (Multilateral Development Banks).

The Beijing-based AIIB was established last year with an authorized capital of $100 billion in which India and 56 other countries joined as founding members. China is the largest shareholder with 26.06 per cent voting shares followed by India with 7.5 per cent, Russia 5.93 per cent and Germany with 4.5 per cent. AIIB is headed by former Assistant Chinese Finance Minister, Jin Liqun, while India’s DJ Pandian is its Vice President and Chief Investment Officer.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8103.60, up by 15.00 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 8039.35 and 8107.65. There were 31 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 3.10%, BPCL up by 2.83%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 2.60%, ACC up by 2.09% and SBI up by 2.01%. On the flip side, TCS down by 3.12%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.86%, Infosys down by 1.59%, Power Grid Corpn. down by 1.48% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.10% were the top losers.

The Asian market were trading mixed, Nikkei 225 increased 357.19 points or 2.39% to 15,309.21, Hang Seng fell by 60.75 points or 0.3% to 20,198.38, Taiwan Weighted declined by 18.12 points or 0.21% to 8,458.87, Jakarta Composite was lower by 13.9 points or 0.29% to 4,820.67, KOSPI Index increased 1.61 points or 0.08% to 1,926.85, Shanghai Composite increased 36.91 points or 1.29% to 2,891.19.  FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down 7.12 points or 0.44% to 1,626.93