Benchmarks continue firm trade in noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade firm in noon session as investors hope for a less hawkish tone from the RBI in its interest rate decision. Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel- led Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will announce its interest rate decision later in the day amid the government pitching for a reduction in borrowing cost to help push private investments. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday made a case for cut in interest rates, saying inflation has been under control for long and is likely to remain so on the back of good monsoon, while there is no likelihood of a spike in oil prices.

Sentiments got a boost after the Met Department has upgraded the South-West monsoon forecast to 98 per cent of the long-term average rainfall from 96 per cent earlier. Rainfall during the June-September monsoon season is expected to be normal, with a high possibility of all four broad geographical regions receiving evenly distributed rains. Some support also came with NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant’s statement that the Goods and Services Tax, to be rolled out next month as the biggest tax reform since independence, will help India achieve 9 percent growth rate. He said GST will simplify India's taxation system and help deal with tax evasion.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed on Wednesday, as traders preferred to remain on the sidelines ahead of several major political and economic events later this week. These include the UK elections, the ECB policy meeting and former FBI Director James Comey's congressional testimony. However, China stocks rose as a growing number of listed firms encouraged employees to buy shares, and as the central bank injected more funds into the banking system to ease fears of a mid-year liquidity crunch.

Back home, stocks from Healthcare, FMCG and Telecom counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from IT and Teck counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, Unichem Laboratories surged the company received an Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from the United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) for its formulations manufacturing facility at Ghaziabad. Furthermore, Maruti Suzuki gained after the company reported 16.80% rise in its production to 151,262 units in May 2017 as compared to 129,509 units in May 2016.

The market breadth remained optimistic, as there were 1446 shares on the gaining side against 922 shares on the losing side, while 123 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31318.44, up by 127.88 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 31229.25 and 31346.99. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.48%, while Small cap index up by 0.83%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.48%, FMCG up by 1.09%, Telecom up by 0.90%, Realty up by 0.72% and Metal up by 0.69%, while IT down by 0.26% and TECK down by 0.11% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.38%, Sun Pharma up by 1.94%, GAIL India up by 1.94%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.69% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.52%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.01%, TCS down by 0.96%, Tata Motors down by 0.94%, HDFC down by 0.46% and Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, terming Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime as the biggest tax reform since independence, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has expressed confident that the new tax regime would help the Indian economy to achieve 9 per cent growth rate. Kant's comments come against the backdrop of India losing the fastest growing economy tag to China for the March quarter with the gross domestic product (GDP) growth slipping to 6.1 per cent.

Kant further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of GST implementation which is scheduled to be rolled out from July 1 will bring a big revolution in India's taxation structure. He added that GST will simplify the county’s taxation system and help deal with tax evasion cases. The GST Council has finalised tax rates on almost all goods and services. All goods and services have been put in slabs of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent, with the exception of gold and precious metals, which will attract 3 per cent GST, and rough diamond at 0.25 per cent GST.

India’s GDP stood at 7.1 per cent for the fiscal year 2016-17, as compared to 8 per cent in the FY16, while for the Jan-Mar quarter it stood at 6.1 per cent against 7 per cent in the previous quarter of FY17. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9672.10, up by 34.95 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 9648.00 and 9678.55. There were 34 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.38%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.98%, Sun Pharma up by 1.97%, Vedanta up by 1.96% and Aurobindo Pharma up by 1.80%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 1.80%, Yes Bank down by 1.01%, TCS down by 1.00%, Wipro down by 0.98% and Tata Motors down by 0.97% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 increased by 1.69 points or 0.01% to 19,981.59, Taiwan Weighted surveyed 3.81 points or 0.04% to 10,209.99, Jakarta Composite rose 18.17 points or 0.32% to 5,726.01 and Shanghai Composite was up by 31.76 points or 1.02% to 3,133.88.

On the other hand, Hang Seng decreased by 32.24 points or 0.12% to 25,964.90, KOSPI Index declined 8.16 points or 0.34% to 2,360.46 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 1.52 points or 0.08% to 1,789.49.