Sensex, Nifty off day’s high as RBI hikes repo rate

Indian equity benchmarks trimmed their gains in late afternoon session to come off their intraday high points, as Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy committee raised repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25 percent from 6.00 percent. Following the larger peers, the broader markets too pared some of their gains in late noon deals, while banking was the only index trading lower on the BSE with marginal losses. However, the bourses managed to keep their heads in green terrain, on the back of positive economic forecast. The World Bank in its latest report said that India is projected to regain its position as the world's fastest growing major economy advancing 7.3 per cent this fiscal year and 7.5 per cent in the next two ‘as factors holding back growth in India fade’. Domestic sentiments were also optimistic with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that the government is taking several steps to promote young entrepreneurs in the country, adding that startups are no longer confined to big cities. Separately, a private report stated that higher public spending has been an important source of support for the economy, and it is likely to remain so this fiscal as well, as the country heads to an election heavy calender next year.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, as the euro held firm and investors looked ahead to the European Central Bank's policy meeting next week. While the Fed is likely to lift interest rates for the seventh time since December 2015 at the June 12-13 meeting, investors wait to see whether the ECB would discuss an exit from its QE program at its next policy meeting on June 14. The focus also remained on the upcoming G-7 summit in Canada, the planned meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un next week and the OPEC's next meeting on June 22 in Vienna. Asian markets were also trading in green. Back home, in scrip specific development, Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) zoomed after the company in the joint venture with MAX Group, a leading construction company in Bangladesh has been awarded Rs 737 crore contract by Russia's State Nuclear Company, JSC Atomstroyexport, for civil works of Turbine Island for Unit 1 of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35009.43, up by 106.22 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 34896.37 and 35202.51. There were 23 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.47%, while Small cap index was up by 0.77%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.95%, Consumer Durables up by 1.57%, Metal up by 1.04%, Industrials up by 0.98% and Auto up by 0.92%, while Bankex down by 0.18% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.01%, Tata Motors up by 2.56%, Sun Pharma up by 2.01%, Coal India up by 1.89% and Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.81%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.15%, ICICI Bank down by 0.74%, HDFC Bank down by 0.56%, Axis Bank down by 0.51% and Yes Bank down by 0.50% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing need to translate all IoT initiatives into business models across various sectors, Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan has said that the innovation and harnessing the potential of Internet of Things (IoT) is imperative for solving practical problems in India.

Telecom Secretary further said that there is also need to work across silos in various fields such as technology, policy, regulation, licenses, and use cases and added that a drive is needed in the country to spread awareness and initiate capacity building across several key ministries like health, agriculture, transport, urban development and energy as use cases will be initiated from these ministries.

As per recent estimates, Indian IoT market stands at $5.6 million with 200 million connected units in 2016 and is likely to witness growth to $15 billion with 2.7 billion units by 2020, while the number of IoT devices globally is estimated to have increased 31% year-over-year to 8.4 billion in 2017.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10634.25, up by 41.10 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 10587.50 and 10674.70. There were 35 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan up by 3.02%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.95%, Tata Motors up by 2.72%, HCL Tech. up by 2.64% and Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 2.29%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 2.01%, HPCL down by 1.53%, Asian Paints down by 1.17%, Cipla down by 1.10% and ICICI Bank down by 0.70% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased 0.97 points or 0.03% to 3,115.18, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 20.44 points or 1.16% to 1,775.58, Nikkei 225 increased 86.19 points or 0.38% to 22,625.73, Taiwan Weighted increased 101.72 points or 0.92% to 11,201.83 and Hang Seng increased 165.65 points or 0.53% to 31,259.10. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 12.6 points or 0.21% to 6,076.19.

All European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC increased 7.48 points or 0.14% to 5,468.43, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 22.13 points or 0.29% to 7,708.93 and Germany’s DAX increased 32.06 points or 0.25% to 12,819.19.