Bourses extend gains in early noon session

Barometer gauges extended their gains in the early noon session with Nifty and Sensex surging over 40 and 130 points respectively. Continuous buying in key heavyweights along with broader indices kept the markets on the positive side. Further, some support came in with a report highlighting that a widespread makeover is being witnessed in the Indian economy especially on the poverty reduction front as goods and services tax (GST) completes one year since its introduction last year. Besides, markets also cheered with the finance minister Piyush Goyal stating that India is likely to improve upon the fiscal deficit target this fiscal year thanks to rising goods and services tax (GST) collections. Adding to the sanguinity, the commerce ministry stated that India has agreed to provide tariff concessions on 3,142 products to the six member nations of the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) effective from July 1. On the sectoral front, key stocks from Energy, Oil & Gas and IT were attracting buyers. Top five Sensex gainers were ONGC, Hero MotoCorp, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors and TCS. Top five Nifty gainers were ONGC, Cipla, Hero MotoCorp, Reliance Industries and Bajaj Auto. 

On the global front, most of Asian markets were trading in red amid trade war fears. Lingering trade concerns weighed on investors’ sentiments as tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports to the U.S. are due to take effect on July 6. Back on the home turf, the market breadth was equally divided; there were 1122 shares on the gaining side against 1062 shares on the losing side while 105 shares remained unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35397.20, up by 132.79 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 35195.63 and 35430.15. There were 22 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.25%, while Small cap index was up by 0.10%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 1.24%, Oil & Gas up by 1.01%, IT up by 0.61%, Healthcare up by 0.58% and Auto up by 0.54%, while Metal down by 0.52%, Power down by 0.40%, Telecom down by 0.37%, Utilities down by 0.26%, Capital Goods down by 0.23% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.53%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.67%, Reliance Industries up by 1.51%, Tata Motors up by 1.37% and TCS up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 2.81%, Power Grid down by 1.70%, ICICI Bank down by 0.56%, Wipro down by 0.29% and HDFC down by 0.25% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the growth of eight core infrastructure industries slowed to ten-month low of 3.6% in May 2018, as compared to 4.7% in April 2018, on account of a decline in production of crude oil and natural gas. According to data released by the ministry of Commerce and Industry, the combined Index of eight core industries stood at 131.4 in May, 2018, which was 3.6% higher compared to the index of May, 2017. Its cumulative growth during April to May, 2018-19 was 4.1%. The Eight Core Industries - coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity - comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).   

Among eight core sectors, Coal production having 10.33% weight rose 12.1% in May, 2018 over May, 2017, and its cumulative index increased by 14.0% during April to May, 2018-19 over corresponding period of the previous year. Petroleum Refinery production having 28.04% weight increased 4.9% in May, 2018 over May, 2017 and its cumulative index surged by 3.9% during April to May, 2018-19 over the corresponding period of previous year.

The Natural Gas production having 6.88% weight declined by 1.4% in May, 2018 over May, 2017, while its cumulative index was up by 2.0% during April to May, 2018-19 over the corresponding period of previous year. On the flip side, Steel production having 17.92% weight slightly rose by 0.5% in May, 2018 over May, 2017 and its cumulative index jumped by 2.1% during April to May, 2018-19 over the corresponding period of previous year.

Fertilizer production having 2.63% weight increased by 8.4% in May, 2018 over May, 2017, and its cumulative index rose by 6.6% during April to May, 2018-19 over the corresponding period of previous year. Cement production having 5.37% weight jumped 5.2% in May, 2018 over May, 2017 and its cumulative index increased by 10.7% during April to May, 2018-19 over the corresponding period of previous year. On the other hand, Crude Oil production having 8.98% weight declined by 2.9% in May, 2018 over May, 2017 and its cumulative index fell by 1.9% during April to May, 2018-19 over the corresponding period of previous year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10699.70, up by 42.40 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 10630.25 and 10708.05. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 2.80%, Cipla up by 1.90%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.54%, Reliance Industries up by 1.50% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 3.27%, Bharti Infratel down by 2.98%, Power Grid down by 1.62%, Grasim Industries down by 0.60% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.55% were the top losers.

Most of Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 39.57 points or 0.18% to 21,772.36, Straits Times dropped 2.16 points or 0.07% to 3,236.78, Hang Seng fell by 599.94 points or 2.12% to 28,355.17, Taiwan Weighted declined 62.22 points or 0.58% to 10,715.72 and Jakarta Composite was down 83.13 points or 1.47% to 5,663.64.

On the contrary, Shanghai Composite moved up 1.48 points or 0.05% to 2,777.04 and KOSPI was up by 1.25 points or 0.05% to 2,272.79.