Benchmarks strengthen further in late noon session

Indian equity markets strengthened further in late noon session on the back of positive global cues as Brexit fears are slowly subsiding. Sentiment also got a boost after the Cabinet cleared the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission according to which the overall hike in salary and allowance of central government employees and pensioners comes to 23.5 per cent. Investors got some comfort with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu’s statement that the government will seek to ensure that the bill on a pan-India goods and services tax (GST) will be passed in the upcoming session of parliament, scheduled from July 18 to August 12. Meanwhile, after disappointing in first half of June, Monsoon have gathered pace in second half of the month, leading to significant drop in countrywide rainfall deficiency.  Global cues too remained supportive with Asian markets trading mostly higher, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street.

Back home, all BSE sectoral indices were trading in the green. Realty index gained the most by 1.36 per cent, followed Consumer Durables and Banking. In scrip specific development, Exide Industries rose.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26890.79, up by 150.40 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 26872.60 and 26994.34. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.70%, while Small cap index added 0.88%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.36%, Consumer Durables up by 1.10%, Bankex up by 1.00%, Auto up by 0.99%, Power up by 0.96%, while there were no losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.68%, Axis Bank up by 2.35%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.96%, ICICI Bank up by 1.73% and Tata Steel up by 1.61%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 0.33%, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 0.30% and HDFC Bank down by 0.15% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, commenting on the Financial Stability report (FSR), Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the Non-Performing Assets (NPA) situation is under control as the economic conditions are showing signs of improvement. He pointed to some factors mentioned in the FSR including the numbers of declining weak companies and the number of stressed companies deleveraging quite fast. Jaitley further said that there are also some positive indications about their ability to pay back to the banks itself.

He highlighted that the report also states that after the Asset Quality Review exercise, the valuation of banks' share will itself increase and therefore in future it will help in capitalization. On financial performance of banks, Jaitley said that the public sector banks have collectively made an operational profit of Rs 1.40 lakh crore even in the midst of challenges. Gross NPAs of public sector banks (PSBs) went up to 7.30 per cent as of December 2015, from 5.43 per cent as of March 2015. In absolute terms, the reading increased to Rs 3,61,731 lakh crore in December, from Rs 2,67,065 lakh crore in March.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently released the Financial Stability Report in which it stated that Indian economy stands out in terms of growth among other emerging markets and the country’s financial system remains stable.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8249.70, up by 45.70 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 8243.15 and 8277.20. There were 45 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 3.49%, Tata Motors up by 2.72%, Grasim Industries up by 2.37%, Idea Cellular up by 2.29% and Axis Bank up by 2.15%. On the flip side, Ambuja Cement down by 0.66%, Infosys down by 0.32%, Bosch down by 0.20%, HDFC Bank down by 0.18% and Sun Pharma Inds. down by 0.17% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mostly in green, Nikkei 225 increased 9.09 points or 0.06% to 15,575.92, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI jumped by 9.19 points or 0.56% to 1,651.40, KOSPI Index move up by 13.99 points or 0.72% to 1,970.35, Jakarta Composite gained 41.57 points or 0.83% to 5,021.67, Taiwan Weighted surged 80.02 points or 0.93% to 8,666.58,Hang Seng increased 287.4 points or 1.41% to 20,723.52. while, Shanghai Composite decreased 2.85 points or 0.1% to 2,928.74.