Bourses manage to keep their heads above water in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks managed to keep their heads above water in afternoon session, on the back of buying by funds and retail investors amid a firm trend in Asian markets. Traders were taking support from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India could soon emerge as the world’s fifth largest economy if it continues to maintain its current pace of growth. Moreover, optimism over Q1 earnings along with a strengthening rupee against the dollar, too supported the markets. However, weak macroeconomic data capped the gains. Retail inflation accelerated to a five-month high of 5 per cent in June compared to 4.87 per cent in May, while industrial production moderated to 3.2 per cent in May compared to 4.9 per cent in April. Meanwhile, broader indices, acting contrary to the trend, were trading lower with losses in the range of 0.55%-1.15%. In scrip specific developments, Adani Green Energy (AGEL) was up by around two and half percent on bagging tenders for setting up 300 MWac solar generation projects.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, heartened by gains on Wall Street fuelled by the expectation of strong US earnings, but China’s markets wobbled as investors braced for the impact of broadening, tit-for-tat Chinese-US tariffs.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36616.25, up by 67.84 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 36528.05 and 36740.07. There were 14 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.58%, while Small cap index was down by 1.09%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.86%, IT up by 0.67%, TECK up by 0.40% and Metal up by 0.14%, while Telecom down by 1.06%, PSU down by 0.96%, Realty down by 0.95%, Basic Materials down by 0.86% and Power down by 0.71% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports &SEZ up by 1.68%, Reliance Industries up by 1.53%, Coal India up by 1.51%, Infosys up by 1.44% and Wipro up by 1.25%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.09%, SBI down by 1.75%, ONGC down by 1.73%, ICICI Bank down by 1.60% and ITC down by 1.54% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to identify various items and policy interventions to curb import dependence, the government has set up a high-level task force under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha. The task force includes secretaries from departments of commerce, industrial policy and promotion, skill development, revenue, defence production, steel, petroleum, electronics and telecommunications. It would suggest ways to cut import of those items which can be manufactured or explored in the country.

The move assumes importance as India is highly dependent on imports of several items such as oil, electronic hardware, machinery, ingredients for pharmaceuticals, gold and chemicals. On an average, India's imports stand at around $450 billion per year. During 2017-18, the inbound shipments grew about 20 percent to $460 billion. Besides, oil imports recorded a growth of 25.47 percent to $109.11 billion in the last fiscal.

Although increase in imports of intermediates and raw materials reflects boost in economic activities, inbound shipments of final goods impact domestic manufacturers. Besides, there are some concerns over India’s high dependence on China for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) which are used as raw material ingredients to prepare finished medicines. At present, over 60 percent of APIs are imported from China.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11031.10, up by 7.90 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 10999.75 and 11071.35. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 1.70%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 1.65%, Coal India up by 1.47%, Wipro up by 1.38% and Infosys up by 1.32%. On the flip side, UPL down by 4.35%, Grasim Industries down by 2.25%, Axis Bank down by 2.22%, HCL Tech. down by 2.09% and Bharti Infratel down by 2.09% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 increased 409.39 points or 1.81% to 22,597.35, Hang Seng was up by 71.69 points or 0.25% to 28,552.52, KOSPI added 25.84 points or 1.12% to 2,310.90, Taiwan Weighted rose 126.16 points or 1.16% to 10,864.54, Straits Times increased 6.96 points or 0.21% to 3,259.97 and Jakarta Composite inched up 39.64 points or 0.67% to 5,947.51.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 4.19 points or 0.15% to 2,833.47.