Markets continue to trade in high spirit in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in high spirit in early noon session on the back of sustained buying by fund and retail investors after Reliance Industries reported better than-expected earnings and exports rose 1.27 per cent in June. Exports in June was $22.5 billion compared with $22.2 billion in the year ago period, while imports declined by 7.33% from $33.1 billion to $30.6 billion in June 2015. Moreover, good progress in monsoon and mixed Asian markets influenced trading sentiments here. However, investors remained cautious with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the Opposition's cooperation in the passage of GST Bill, as the Opposition is set to target the government over developments in Arunachal Pradesh and Kashmir during parliament's monsoon session starting today.   In scrip specific development, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) was trading 0.39 per cent down at Rs 935.95. The company will announce its financial results for the first quarter ended June 30, 2016 today.

On the global front, Asian stock markets mostly up on Monday following another record close on Wall Street but the gains were tempered by profit-taking following last week’s global rally.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27988.02, up by 151.52 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 27918.48 and 28013.50. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.34%, while Small cap index added 0.67%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.38%, Realty up by 1.02%, Bankex up by 0.95%, Capital Goods up by 0.61% and Oil & Gas up by 0.25%, while TECK down by 0.20%, Consumer Durables down by 0.17% and IT down by 0.03% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 2.38%, Tata Motors up by 2.25%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.87%, ICICI Bank up by 1.81% and Reliance Industries up by 1.43%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.45%, ONGC down by 1.35%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.02%, Wipro down by 0.84% and NTPC down by 0.80% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, highlighting that India is the bright spot with its economy growing at 7.4% to 7.6%, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu has stated that the entire world is looking to India for investment due to the present conducive atmosphere in the country. He said that it’s attributed to all those who were behind the change in the policy directions, reducing regulations, bringing in 'reform to perform and transform the country.

Listing out various pro-farmer initiatives taken up by the NDA government, Naidu elaborated that government had set up a 'Pulses Commission' under Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian to carry out a study to boost production of pulses and increased the minimum support price for pulses by Rs 200 last year and again by Rs 450 this year in order to encourage farmers to cultivate them. Also the government had come out with a neem coated urea that cannot be diverted for industrial to prevent misuse of urea.

He added that, the Centre has asked the state governments to invoke Essential Commodities Act against those who hiked the prices of fertilisers over minimum retail price which will be benefits to farmers.  Venkaiah Naidu, who released various coir products on the occasion, asked the Coir Board to take steps to modernize the industry, so that productivity and production can be increased to meet the demand of both domestic and international markets. The export of coir products recorded a high of Rs 1,901 crore last year, which will be doubled in the next three years.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8575.65, up by 34.25 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 8558.45 and 8585.35. There were 32 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.50%, Tata Motors up by 2.04%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.02%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.68% and ICICI Bank up by 1.64%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.66%, ONGC down by 1.37%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.28%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.12% and Zee Entertainment down by 1.09% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mixed, KOSPI Index increased 1.62 points or 0.08% to 2,018.88, Jakarta Composite increased 16.56 points or 0.32% to 5,126.74, Taiwan Weighted increased 58.36 points or 0.65% to 9,008.21, Hang Seng increased 70.33 points or 0.32% to 21,729.58 and Nikkei 225 increased 111.96 points or 0.68% to 16,497.85. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 3.92 points or 0.13% to 3,050.37 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.9 points or 0.17% to 1,665.50.