Benchmarks trade marginally in green

Indian equity benchmarks are trading marginally in green in early deals on Wednesday, as traders took some encouragement with rating agency Ind-Ra revising India's economic growth forecast to 7.8 percent for the ongoing fiscal on better monsoon. It has said the positive impact of monsoon on agriculture will support the overall GDP growth with its backward and forward linkages. Some support also came with report that India is re-negotiating over a two-decade old tax treaty with Singapore and the revised protocol will take into account the concerns of both. However, upside gains remain capped as traders roll-over positions to the September series with the August derivative contracts set to expire on Thursday.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red at this point of time after profit taking emerged at higher levels even as global crude oil prices slipped after data indicated increase in US inventories.

Back home, the market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was strong, with 1250 shares gaining and 685 shares declining, while a total of 120 shares were unchanged. In scrip specific developments, Aurobindo Pharma surges around 5% after the pharma major reported a 24% increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 585 crore for the quarter ended June, 2016 driven by double-digit sales growth across major markets led by the US formulations business.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28036.51, up by 46.30 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 28003.51 and 28108.39. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.61%, while Small cap index was up by 0.50%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.72%, Auto up by 0.68%, IT up by 0.62%, Realty up by 0.56% and Oil & Gas up by 0.53%, while Telecom down by 0.44%, Bankex down by 0.07% and Finance down by 0.04% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.50%, NTPC up by 2.33%, Infosys up by 1.79%, Cipla up by 1.51% and Sun Pharma up by 0.70%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 1.76%, TCS down by 0.89%, Coal India down by 0.89%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.70% and HDFC down by 0.54% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to speed up infrastructure development and investment to boost economic growth, government has reviewed the performance of key infrastructure sectors including renewable energy, aviation and railways. The Prime Minister has stated that the cumulative installed capacity of renewable energy crossed 44 GigaWatts (GW), targets have been met for various components and projects under Centre and state policies.

In the aviation sector, government reviewed progress in key policy areas such as safety and connectivity. It was noted that eight Indian airports are ranked among the top five globally in their respective categories and added that further steps will be taken to boost regional connectivity and improve customer satisfaction indices at airports. In the power sector, 3.5 crore LED bulbs have been distributed in current fiscal year. Indian Railways has achieved a target of daily passenger movement of 2.25 crore and around 240 unmanned crossings have been eliminated in the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

In the ports sector, there has been considerable progress in average vessel turnaround time. Besides, in the rural housing sector 6.94 lakh rural houses have been completed in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, as compared with a target of 6 lakh houses. And in the petroleum and natural gas sector, the government sought to know the steps being taken to ramp up ethanol blending of petrol and over 15 crore households were covered under Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG in FY16.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8646.25, up by 13.65 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 8633.80 and 8661.05. There were 26 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Aurobindo Pharma up by 4.91%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.26%, NTPC up by 2.17%, Infosys up by 1.77% and Cipla up by 1.35%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 3.47%, Lupin down by 1.74%, Coal India down by 1.14%, Ambuja Cement down by 0.96% and TCS down by 0.81% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 150.55 points or 0.65% to 22,848.38, Jakarta Composite shed 17.22 points or 0.32% to 5,399.92, KOSPI Index slipped 5.24 points or 0.26% to 2,044.69 and Shanghai Composite was down by 0.83 points or 0.03% to 3,088.88. On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.47 points or 0.03% to 1,683.54, Taiwan Weighted added 1.36 points or 0.02% to 9,032.29 and Nikkei 225 was up by 90.15 points or 0.55% to 16,587.51.