Indian bourses continue to trade in positive territory

Key benchmark indices continued to trade in positive territory in afternoon session, backed by gains in bluechip stocks, including ONGC, Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma and Reliance Industries. Sentiments remained positive with Finance Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that India will be able to restrict the fiscal deficit below the budgeted level of 3.3 per cent of GDP in 2018-19, which has hit 55 per cent of the annual target in the first two months of the financial year. Some comfort also came in with Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu’s statement that early data indicate that exports have registered a good performance in June despite volatility in global markets. However, there was some cautiousness too with report that growth in output of the crucial eight core industries declined to a 10-month low of 3.6 per cent in May due to a fall in the pace of growth of steel, cement as well as contraction in crude and natural gas. This might have an adverse impact on the index of industrial production (IIP) as core industries have 40 per cent weightage in the index. On the sectoral front, Public Sector Banks were under pressure despite report stating that state-run banks will take the lead in setting up an asset management company (AMC) for the resolution of loans above Rs 500 crore as part of further efforts aimed at rescuing bad assets and restoring lenders to health so that they can focus on credit growth to push forward India's ongoing economic recovery.

On the global front, most of Asian markets were trading in red, as investors worry over Beijing's trade relations with the U.S. soured sentiment in the region. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35377.68, up by 113.27 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 35195.63 and 35430.15. There were 21 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.35%, while Small cap index was up by 0.21%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.02%, Energy up by 0.99%, Oil & Gas up by 0.89%, Auto up by 0.82% and Realty up by 0.66%, while Telecom down by 0.40%, Capital Goods down by 0.21%, Power down by 0.10% and Consumer Durables down by 0.03% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.02%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.72%, Sun Pharma up by 1.27%, Reliance Industries up by 1.23% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.23%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 1.99%, Power Grid down by 0.94%, ICICI Bank down by 0.79%, HDFC down by 0.37% and SBI down by 0.33% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the commerce ministry has 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 01, 2018. However, these duty concessions will be more for least developed countries (LDCs) and less for developing nations. The six member countries are Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, Korea and Sri Lanka.

The fourth round of trade negotiations were formally concluded and signed by the ministers of the member countries during their meeting on January 13 last year. With the implementation of this decision, the coverage of preferences of total tariff lines for each member would come of 10,677 products, up from 4,270 items at the conclusion of the third round and deepen the average margin of preference (MoP) being provided under the agreement to 31.52%. But, LDC members are entitled to greater concessions on 1,249 items with an average MoP of 81%.

APTA is an initiative under the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) for trade expansion through exchange of tariff concessions among developing country members of the Asia Pacific Region and it is in place since 1975. Under a free trade agreement, countries cut or eliminate duties on most number of goods traded between them besides liberalising norms to promote services trade and investments. But, under a PTA, duties are eliminated on a certain number of identified items.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10692.15, up by 34.85 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 10630.25 and 10708.05. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 2.38%, ONGC up by 2.19%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.60%, Tata Motors up by 1.42% and Sun Pharma up by 1.35%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 2.94%, Vedanta down by 2.48%, Power Grid down by 0.86%, ICICI Bank down by 0.83% and HDFC down by 0.62% were the top losers.

Most of Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 26.39 points or 0.12% to 21,785.54, Straits Times dropped 7.30 points or 0.23% to 3,231.64, Hang Seng fell by 524.39 points or 1.84% to 28,430.72, Taiwan Weighted declined 62.22 points or 0.58% to 10,715.72 and Jakarta Composite was down 66.92 points or 1.18% to 5,679.85.

On the other side, Shanghai Composite moved up 5.63 points or 0.20% to 2,781.19 and KOSPI was up by 1.22 points or 0.05% to 2,272.76.