Benchmarks make cautious start on Tuesday

Indian equity benchmark are trading with caution in early deals on Tuesday, as sentiments remained dampened with report that pledging of shares by promoters in companies listed on the National Stock Exchange hit a seven year high at the end of June. However, some support came with the business confidence index maintained by NCAER gaining 2.2 per cent during the June quarter helped by increasing optimism towards the coming six months. Traders also took some encouragement with report that India will highlight the goods and services tax (GST) and other policy measures taken to boost the ease of doing business in the country in its bid to get more investments from the US at the second Indo-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue in New Delhi next week.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green. Japanese market get back its positive terrain, after a soft start, on report that Japan’s government is preparing a $33 billion supplementary budget to help fund Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic stimulus package.

Back home, in scrip specific development, GAIL gained around one and a half percent after inking a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with California-based Bloom Energy, to develop natural gas-based fuel cell power generation. Tata Motors too were trading with traction after PT Tata Motors Distribusi Indonesia (TMDI), its unit, launched two new-generation commercial vehicles in Indonesia - Tata ULTRA 1012 light truck and Tata Xenon XT D-Cab 4x4 pick-up - at the Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS) 2016.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27985.83, up by 0.29 points after trading in a range of 27928.63 and 28028.98. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.02%, while Small cap index was up by 0.21%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.48%, TECK up by 1.22%, Utilities up by 0.48%, Auto up by 0.18% and Telecom up by 0.11%, while Capital Goods down by 0.64%, Energy down by 0.50%, PSU down by 0.42%, FMCG down by 0.41% and Oil & Gas down by 0.31% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.88%, TCS up by 1.55%, GAIL India up by 1.43%, Adani Ports & Special up by 0.89% and Tata Motors up by 0.87%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 0.79%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.76%, ITC down by 0.75%, SBI down by 0.71% and Sun Pharma down by 0.70% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Indian economy has re-energized and is on the edge to achieve a growth rate of 7.5% in next two years. President Pranab Mukherjee confidently said that Indian economy has revived and our prospects are brighter as we are poised to grow at 7.5% in both 2016 and 2017. Further, passgae of GST bill paves the way for creation of unified market and promises to boost GDP growth rates by up to 2%.

President said that current account deficit has come down to 1.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 1.3% of GDP last year. Pointing out 2008 economic crisis, he said quite a few bodies across the world had to revise their targets but in that uncertainly India has done well. He also has drawn attention on providing quality education to India’s youths.

Mukherjee further said the quality of hard work and standards of higher institutions must be enhanced in order to achieve a high place in the international community. He said current initiatives like Make in India, improving the ease of doing business, Invest India, Skilling India and Start-up India aim to address some of these issues and boost our capacity for growth. He added that India has initiated the Make in India programme in 25 sectors of the economy, where both national and multinational companies have been invited.

The president stated that food prices remained within comfortable levels in the early months of this year and must remain attentive as recently they started to rise. Besides, India's foreign exchange reserves stood at $ 365 billion. Mukherjee hoped that India's food grains production will surpass the record of 265 million tonnes achieved in 2013-14.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8625.95, down by 3.20 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 8608.00 and 8629.80. There were 17 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 1.86%, Infosys up by 1.68%, TCS up by 1.67%, GAIL India up by 1.32% and Grasim Industries up by 1.16%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 2.36%, Hindalco down by 1.03%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.95%, Cipla down by 0.94% and ONGC down by 0.77% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite rose 6.7 points or 0.22% to 3,091.50, KOSPI Index increased 6.98 points or 0.34% to 2,049.14, Nikkei 225 gained 28.73 points or 0.17% to 16,626.92 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 53.88 points or 0.6% to 9,035.69. On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 73.41 points or 0.32% to 22,924.50, Jakarta Composite shed 44.85 points or 0.83% to 5,382.32 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.91 points or 0.11% to 1,689.16.