Local bourses hold gains in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks held their gains in afternoon session, on positive global leads and sustained buying by domestic institutional investors. The indices remained in green with taking support from Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg’s statement that it is a plausible aspiration for India and the country has also potential to become a $10 trillion economy by 2030. He added that this target is likely to be achieved with the help of a sustained average growth of 8% coupled with an assumed devaluation of Indian rupee vis-a-vis US dollar at Re one per year. Some support also came with the global rating agency, Moody’s latest report that non-financial corporates in the country may show modest improvement in their leverage levels in the current financial year, supported by higher revenue and earnings growth. Besides, buying in Realty, Energy, Metal and Banking stocks too were keeping the equity benchmarks up. In the currency front, the rupee recovered from its nearly one-month low by strengthening 31 paise to 68.07 against the US dollar in early trade, on heightened selling of the US currency by exporters and banks. On the sectoral front, Airline stocks slipped after the air passenger traffic growth slows in the month of May. According to data released by the DGCA, domestic air passenger traffic grew 16.53% to 11.86 million in May this year over the same period a year ago. The growth rate was lowest since September 2017, when airlines in India carried 9.58 million passengers, up 16.34% from last September. 

On the global front, Asian market were trading mostly in green, but investors struggled to sustain any meaningful recovery after the previous day’s battering, with the shadow of a potentially damaging China-US trade war hanging over markets. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35460.18, up by 173.44 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 35329.51 and 35481.91. There were 23 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.08%, while Small cap index was up by 0.26%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.94%, Energy up by 0.76%, Metal up by 0.75%, Bankex up by 0.73% and Telecom up by 0.60%, while Capital Goods down by 0.56%, Oil & Gas down by 0.50%, PSU down by 0.48%, Industrials down by 0.31% and FMCG down by 0.23% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 2.48%, Reliance Industries up by 2.15%, Yes Bank up by 1.54%, Axis Bank up by 1.46% and Indusind Bank up by 1.28%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.83%, ONGC down by 1.30%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.03%, Wipro down by 1.01% and ITC down by 0.94% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to develop a comprehensive ecosystem for standards and quality development, the government has come out with a product and services standardisation strategy. It is expected that all elements of the strategy would be undertaken and completed over a five-year period (2018-23). The strategy includes promoting brand India, developing quality norms for services sector and ease compliance burden for small and medium enterprises. According to the strategy paper, the rapid growth of the Indian economy, its size and emerging relevance in global trade, makes it essential to establish a robust quality ecosystem in India with a harmonised, dynamic and mature standards framework.

The strategy would focus on four areas such as standards development, conformity assessment and accreditation, technical regulations, and awareness and education. It aims to develop a comprehensive ecosystem for standards and quality development besides using standards for providing a level-playing field to domestic industry and enhancing the competitiveness of Indian goods and services in domestic and global markets.

Besides, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that standards of goods and services would help boosts both exports as well as domestic economy growth. The implementation of the strategy would be monitored by a high-level committee with quarterly reviews. As part of standards development, it has set eight goals including convergence of all standards development activities in India, harmonising standards with international norms, and development of services sector standards. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10757.10, up by 46.65 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 10724.05 and 10764.70. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 2.52%, Reliance Industries up by 2.11%, Zee Entertainment up by 1.72%, Yes Bank up by 1.45% and Cipla up by 1.41%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.87%, Indian Oil Corp. down by 1.69%, UPL down by 1.68%, ONGC down by 1.33% and HPCL down by 1.28% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 276.95 points or 1.23% to 22,555.43, Straits Times gained 26.41 points or 0.79% to 3,327.76, Hang Seng jumped 290.02 points or 0.97% to 29,758.17, Taiwan Weighted advanced 23.25 points or 0.21% to 10,927.44, KOSPI rose by 26.89 points or 1.14% to 2,367.00 and Shanghai Composite was up by 13.68 points or 0.47% to 2,921.50.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 145.63 points or 2.49% to 5,848.00.