Benchmarks continue firm trade in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks gained momentum and continued their firm trade, hovering near the highest point of the day in the late morning session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters. The sentiment remained firm taking cues from Asian peers and on expectations that the crucial GST Bill is likely to be passed very soon. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has expressed confidence over getting the long-pending GST bill passed in Parliament. The rupee strengthened for the fifth straight day against the dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange today on sustained selling of the US currency by exporters and banks amid sustained foreign fund inflows provided some upside support. Traders were seen piling position in IT, TECK and Auto stocks while selling was witnessed in Capital Goods sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Advanced Enzyme Technologies made a spectacular debut on the bourses listing at a premium of around 35% over its issue price of Rs 896. The public offer, which ran between July 20 and July 22, was subscribed 116.91 times. Hectic buying activity was witnessed in railways stocks like Concor, Titagarh Wagons, Texmaco Rail & Engineering and Kalindee Rail Nirman after Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu stated that Railways will invest Rs 7,000 crore in the current fiscal (2016-17) to develop its network in the seven northeastern states.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, with Japanese stocks recovering as the yen pulled back following its second-biggest gain this year and as investors digested the latest readings on regional manufacturing activity. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,700 and 28,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1462:723, while 106 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28270.98, up by 219.12 points or 0.78% after trading in a range of 28077.42 and 28284.85. 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 1.18%, while Small cap index was up by 0.90%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.66%, TECK up by 1.55%, Auto up by 1.50%, Metal up by 1.42% and Realty up by 0.91%, while was Capital Goods down by 0.19% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 3.73%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.51%, Wipro up by 2.39%, Tata Motors up by 2.27% and Maruti Suzuki up by 2.10%.

On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.85%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.09% and Lupin down by 0.95% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government is considering an initiative to merge state owned  oil companies in order to create one of the largest players on the world stage, whose revenue will dwarf global energy major Chevron which competes with US conglomerate General Electric.

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has said that the government is deliberating on the issue of merging of state-owned exploration and production (E&P) companies and oil marketing firms in the public sector to create a behemoth. He said with crude oil prices falling, the profits and margins of state-owned E&P firms ONGC and Oil India were getting eroded and directly hitting on profits.

India's top six public listed oil firms run by the government have a combined market value of $77 billion. In financial year 2015-2016, they reported Rs. 45,000 crore in profit and Rs. 9.32 lakh crore in revenue. If the idea materializes, this will be India's largest firm in terms of turnover, net profit, capital expenditure and market capitalization. Its market value can be bigger than India's Reliance Industries. Globally too, the merged entity's market value and financial powers would challenge that of Russia's Rosneft and Britain's BP Plc.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8707.30, up by 68.80 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 8650.80 and 8711.30. There were 46 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were TCS up by 3.91%, Hindalco up by 3.18%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.92%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.56% and Wipro up by 2.55%.

On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.96%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.20%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.14%, Lupin down by 0.96% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.34% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 10.2 points or 0.62% to 1,663.46, KOSPI Index increased 13.27 points or 0.66% to 2,029.46, Nikkei 225 increased 21.84 points or 0.13% to 16,591.11, Taiwan Weighted increased 74.53 points or 0.83% to 9,058.94, Jakarta Composite increased 121.31 points or 2.33% to 5,337.31 and Hang Seng increased 293.31 points or 1.34% to 22,184.68.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite decreased 37.1 points or 1.25% to 2,942.24.