Markets turn positive in morning session

Indian benchmarks erased its initial losses to turn positive in morning session, as traders took encouragement from union minister for electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad’s statement that India is the third largest investor in the United Kingdom and emerged as the second largest international job creator with Indian companies having created over 110,000 jobs in the UK in recent months. The domestic sentiments also remained upbeat with a report that with an aim to increase bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2030, India and South Korea have inked 11 MoUs, including an agreement to discuss upgrade of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). The traders overlooked a private report stating that Indian inflation likely rose to a near two-year high in June, driven by surging oil and food prices, a development that would strengthen calls for more monetary policy tightening by the Reserve Bank of India. Meanwhile, the rupee extended losses for the second straight session against the US dollar, due to sustained capital outflows and strengthening of the greenback against other currencies overseas.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, with major markets in the region falling following the release of a list of an additional $200 billion in Chinese goods on which the US is considering imposing tariffs. The goods on the US government’s list would be subject to 10% tariffs. Back home, in scrip specific development, Bigbloc Construction surged on inking MoU to acquire Hilltop Concrete. Besides, KEC International soared on bagging new orders worth Rs 1,357 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36317.37, up by 77.75 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 36169.70 and 36341.08. There were 17 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.01%, while Small cap index was up by 0.25%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.49%, TECK up by 1.26%, Realty up by 0.97%, FMCG up by 0.55% and Telecom was up by 0.23%, while Metal down by 1.70%, Basic Materials down by 0.66%, PSU down by 0.62%, Utilities down by 0.47% and Oil & Gas was down by 0.20% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 3.11%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.02%, Axis Bank up by 1.18%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.02% and Asian Paints was up by 0.62%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.39%, Vedanta down by 2.04%, SBI down by 1.16%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.12% and Tata Motors was down by 1.11% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Global Innovation Index (GII) rankings, published annually by Cornell University, INSEAD and the UN World Intellectual Property Organisation and GII Knowledge Partners, has ranked India at the 57th spot this year, a slight improvement from the 60th position in 2017.  India slightly improved its rank in an index of the world’s most innovative economies, maintaining its position as the top exporter of information technology (IT) services. The country is the top exporter of IT services for the second consecutive year.

India maintained its top place in the Central and Southern Asia region. However, it is noteworthy that while India is the top exporter of IT services, the use and access of information and communication technologies within the country is poor. India ranked 105th on IT access and 110th on IT use. Among lower middle-income economies, India moved up to the 5th position in the GII rankings. It has also outperformed on innovation relative to its GDP per capita for 8 years in a row. India ranks well on a number of important indicators - productivity growth and exports of information and communication technology and services.

The other areas of strength for India include the number of its science and engineering graduates, an area in which it ranked sixth overall. It ranked fourth on ease of protecting minority investors, 16th on trade, competition and market scale and within this section, third on domestic market scale measured in purchasing power parity, 18th on the global R&D companies indicator, 20th on gross capital formation and 35th overall in investment.

However, the report highlighted that India is still lagging in parameters of ease of starting a business, political stability and safety, and female employees with advanced degrees in the workforce. In some categories India ranked comparatively low displaying weakness. These are Political stability and safety (110), Regulatory quality (91), Applied tariff rate (96), Intensity of local competition (93), On the ecological sustainability indicator, India ranked at 119 and Out of 126 nations, it ranked 123rd on environmental performance.

India also did not fare well in the business environment category, ranking 106 overall and 114th in the sub-category of ease of starting a business and 91st on ease of resolving insolvency. In the education sector, the country was lagging considerably, coming in at the 112th rank and performing poorly in areas of expenditure on education as a per cent of GDP (82) and pupil-teacher ratio at the secondary level (101). Besides, in its 11th edition, the GII ranks 126 economies based on 80 indicators, ranging from intellectual property filing rates to mobile-application creation, education spending and scientific and technical publications.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10970.90, up by 23.65 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 10923.00 and 10976.65. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were TCS up by 3.25%, Bharti Infratel up by 3.13%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.43%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.77% and Indiabulls Housing Finance was up by 1.63%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.53%, Hindalco down by 2.36%, Vedanta down by 2.12%, GAIL India down by 1.69% and SBI was down by 1.23% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Taiwan Weighted slipped 81.93 points or 0.77% to 10,674.96, Straits Times declined 23.35 points or 0.72% to 3,251.48, Shanghai Composite fell 52.85 points or 1.9% to 2,774.78, Jakarta Composite decreased 19.11 points or 0.33% to 5,862.65, Nikkei 225 lost 234.00 points or 1.07% to 21,962.89, Hang Seng dropped 439.96 points or 1.56% to 28,242.29 and KOSPI was down by 11.71 points or 0.51% to 2,282.45.