Local equities continue firm trade in morning deals

Local equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in the morning session and set fresh new record highs on Monday morning, with Nifty touching 11,400 for the first time, while Sensex gained around 150 points. Banking stock such as ICICI Bank, SBI and Yes Bank were the prime gainers among heavy-weights, pushing the Sensex 0.40% higher. Likewise, PSU, Metal and Telecom have also elevated with gains on their respective front line stocks. Traders took encouragement from a report that India and Sri Lanka are aiming at concluding the negotiations by December this year. Both the countries are targeting to conclude the talks by December for the Economic and Technology Co-operation Agreement (ETCA). Market-men also took note of a report that while the Centre’s capital expenditure (CAPEX) in the April-June quarter was more than a quarter higher than the year-ago period, the state governments seem to have applied brakes on their CAPEX to curb borrowings and remain on the fiscal consolidation path.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after China’s central bank took steps to try to drag the yuan away from 14-month lows, but the tit-for-tat conflict over Sino-US trade hung heavily on markets. Investors took note of a report stating that the China's finance ministry proposed tariffs on $60 billion worth of US goods on August 3, while a senior Chinese diplomat cast doubt on prospects of talks with Washington to resolve the bitter trade conflict. Back home, on the sectoral front, Power stock rose on a report that the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has pegged energy and peak power surplus at 4.6% and 2.5%, respectively, this fiscal, indicating that India will be a power surplus country in 2018-19.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 37705.74, up by 149.58 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 37643.29 and 37805.25. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.22%, while Small cap index was up by 0.47%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.08%, Consumer Durables up by 0.66%, PSU up by 0.63%, Metal up by 0.57% and Telecom was up by 0.49%, while Healthcare down by 0.30%, Realty down by 0.16%, IT down by 0.10% and TECK down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 3.08%, SBI up by 2.51%, Yes Bank up by 1.14%, Axis Bank up by 1.06% and Coal India was up by 0.88%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.22%, Sun Pharma down by 0.92%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.72%, Infosys down by 0.52% and Wipro was down by 0.41% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest data has showed that bank credit jumped 12.44% to Rs 86,13,164 crore in the fortnight to July 20 as compared to Rs 76,59,898 crore same period last year.   Growth in advances during the reporting period was marginally lower than the increase registered in the fortnight to July 6, when loans increased by 12.78% to Rs 86,60,069 crore.

As par the data, during the reporting fortnight, deposits rose 8.15% to Rs 1,14,38,121 crore from Rs 1,05,75,615 crore a year ago. Deposit the growth, the pace was slower than that in the last fortnight ended July 6, 2018, when they had risen 8.33% to Rs 1,14,85,768 crore.

In June 2018, the non-food bank credit rose 11.1% as against a rise of 4.8% in the same month last year. Loans to agriculture and allied activities slowed 6.5% in June, compared to an increase of 7.5% in June 2017. Personal loan segment saw a growth of 17.9% in June, up from an increase of 14.1% last June, while advances to the industry rose 0.9% compared to a contraction of 1.1% in June 2017.

Besides, the services sector witnessed a major increase in loans to the tune of 23.3% compared to an increase of 4.7% in June 2017.  However, loans to basic metal and metal products, construction and gems and jewellery contracted in June 2018. The RBI highlighted that credit to major sub-sectors such as textiles, all engineering, food processing, chemical and chemical products, and cement and cement products accelerated.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11393.75, up by 32.95 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 11377.95 and 11427.65. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 3.05%, UPL up by 2.64%, SBI up by 2.36%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.31% and Axis Bank was up by 1.02%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.47%, Sun Pharma down by 1.02%, Lupin down by 1.02%, Grasim Industries down by 0.79% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was down by 0.76% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI rose 3.93 points or 0.17% to 2,291.61, Taiwan Weighted gained 1.60 points or 0.01% to 11,014.03, Hang Seng strengthened 152.99 points or 0.55% to 27,829.31, Jakarta Composite fell 76.81 points or 1.26% to 6,084.35, Straits Times was up by 26.30 points or 0.8% to 3,292.03.

On the other side, Nikkei 225 slipped 4.76 points or 0.02% to 22,520.42 and Shanghai Composite was down by 21.06 points or 0.77% to 2,719.38.