Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks have started on positive note and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Tuesday, as traders took some encouragement with the continuous fall in international crude oil prices. Some support also came on report that the government has kicked off the process of setting up a new monetary policy committee after it notified key amendments to a law governing the Reserve Bank of India. Recovery in Asian counters too aided sentiments; most of the Regional indices were trading in green at this point of time on prospect of stimulus packages in Japan and South Korea. Back home, stocks related to FMCG space remained on buyers’ radar on expectation that rural volume growth would pick up pace after the MET department stating that monsoon rains are likely to retreat later than normal. However, select stocks from software counter were witnessing selling pressure on concerns over demand uncertainty from Europe and volatility in the British pound post the Brexit.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26468.36, up by 65.40 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 26378.46 and 26490.31. 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 0.43%, while Small cap index up by 0.69%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.71%, Capital Goods up by 0.84%, Oil & Gas up by 0.75%, FMCG up by 0.60% and PSU up by 0.54%, while Auto down by 0.16% and Realty down by 0.18% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Lupin up by 1.70%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.69%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.38%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.99% and Asian Paints up by 0.91%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.14%, Wipro down by 0.84%, ICICI Bank down by 0.60%, Tata Steel down by 0.48% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.29% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, pointing to the overall decline in the inflation rate during his government against the UPA government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that inflation rate of the country which rose under the time of the previous UPA government has decelerated a lot. Though Modi said that in order to tackle inflation further the states and Centre need to work together as it is a joint responsibility of the state and central governments.

Modi stated that as the country has gone through two consecutive years of severe drought, it had an adverse impact on prices of vegetables, food and pulses. Henceforth, in a way to avoid this the Centre has given rights to the states to make stringent laws. How much stocks to keep or not to keep are decisions which the states can take. All these rights have been given to the states. Some states have performed well, some states are trying.

Prime minister also pointed that due to the lower production in the country, the prices of pulses has been rising. The farmers who were earlier sowing pulses have started cultivating sugar cane which is also an area of concern. Government is taking steps to build stocks of pulses by importing from abroad and has given special incentives for pulses and has tried to set up a different MSP for pulses.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8115.95, up by 21.25 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 8086.85 and 8124.90. There were 35 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Idea Cellular up by 1.79%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.75%, Lupin up by 1.68%, Bharti Infratel up by 1.51% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.47%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.24%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.23%, Zee Entertainment down by 0.86%, Wipro down by 0.73% and Tata Steel down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 7.93 points or 0.41% to 1,934.78, Taiwan Weighted gained 28.6 points or 0.34% to 8,487.47, Jakarta Composite jumped 33.33 points or 0.69% to 4,869.38 and Nikkei 225 was up by 57.41 points or 0.38% to 15,366.62.

On the flip side, Hang Seng declined 176.37 points or 0.87% to 20,050.93, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI slipped 2.2 points or 0.14% to 1,627.32 and Shanghai Composite was down by 1.2 points or 0.04% to 2,894.50.