Markets trade near day’s high; Nifty reclaims 11k mark

Extending their early gains, Indian equity benchmarks were trading near intraday high levels, recapturing their crucial 36,500 (Sensex) and 11,000 (Nifty) mark. Sentiments remained up-beat with report that India Inc said the spike in inflation, which rose to over 4-year high of 5.77 per cent in June, was temporary as it is caused by disruptions in supply chain, and inflation is expected to be benign on the back of a good monsoon in the near future. Some support also came with report stating that corporate India announced deals worth $74.8 billion in the January-June period, registering a 90 percent jump over last year, largely driven by big ticket consolidations. Meanwhile, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said that For India to grow at 9-10 per cent for three decades consistently and reap the dividend of demographic advantage, promoting entrepreneurship among women has to be the key strategy.

Firm trade in European counters too aided sentiments and are trading in green on Tuesday amid optimism about growth after the International Monetary Fund kept its forecast for global economic growth unchanged at 3.9 percent this year despite proliferating trade conflicts. Asian equity markets were trading mostly lower as oil prices extended declines for a second straight session, worries over the US-China trade war persisted and investors looked ahead to a Congressional testimony from Fed chair Jerome Powell for clues on rate outlook. Back home, In scrip specific developments, Ashok Leyland jumped on reporting over 3 fold jump in Q1 net profit and Federal Bank zoomed on reporting 25% rise in Q1 net profit.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36527.17, up by 203.40 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 36261.78 and 36549.55. There were 22 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index surged 2.17%, while Small cap index was up by 0.95%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.11%, PSU up by 1.89%, Oil & Gas up by 1.89%, Basic Materials up by 1.57% and Consumer Durables was up by 1.39%, while FMCG down by 0.74% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.91%, Tata Steel up by 2.69%, Vedanta up by 2.65%, Tata Motors up by 2.42% and Hero MotoCorp was up by 2.22%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.27%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.23%, Indusind Bank down by 0.95%, NTPC down by 0.71% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was down by 0.49% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to boost India’s economic growth, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has said that promoting women entrepreneurs will be key strategy for the country to grow at the rate of 9-10% for three decades consistently and reap the dividend of demographic advantage. He also pointed to Khap Panchayats of Haryana for not providing adequate opportunity for health, education and nutrition to women, which kept certain state districts as worst performers on aspirational scale.

Kant also said if women don’t do well then the society faces an inter-generational cycle of malnutrition and infant mortality. He added that India needs far more contribution of women in GDP. Women contribute about 22% of the country’s GDP, while the worldwide average is close to 44-45%. Therefore, he said that if India has to grow consistently at 9-10% for three decades and reap dividend of demographic advantage, the focus on women entrepreneurship has to be key aspect of growth strategy.

Niti Aayog CEO further noted that whenever opportunity has been provided to women they have performed much better than men. He added ‘Our belief is that if you want to transform India, then you need to give huge fillip to women entrepreneurship’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11007.40, up by 70.55 points or 0.65% after trading in a range of 10925.60 and 11017.65. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HPCL up by 5.86%, Indian Oil Corporation up by 4.29%, Hindalco up by 3.07%, BPCL up by 3.02% and Tata Steel was up by 2.72%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.40%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.53%, Eicher Motors down by 1.31%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.19% and Indusind Bank was down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted fell 38.46 points or 0.36% to 10,778.99, Jakarta Composite slipped 55.75 points or 0.95% to 5,849.41, KOSPI declined 4.07 points or 0.18% to 2,297.92, Shanghai Composite lost 15.42 points or 0.55% to 2,798.62 and Hang Seng decreased 357.98 points or 1.27% to 28,181.68. On the other side Straits Times up 4.06 points or 0.13% to 3,236.85, Nikkei 225 gained 100.01 points or 0.44% to 22,697.36.

All the European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 9.93 points or 0.13% to 7,610.38, France’s CAC added 1.47 points or 0.03% to 5,410.90, Germany’s DAX was up by 15.69 points or 012 % to 12,576.71.