Benchmarks continue to trade just above neutral line

Local equity benchmarks continued to trade flat just above the neutral line, with Sensex and Nifty gaining around 0.10%, despite positive global clues. Energy, IT and Auto have also elevated with gains on their respective front line stocks. Among heavy-weights Coal India, Tata Motors and Wipro exhibited a smart performance, with gains over 1.5%. The Indian rupee surged for the second session on Tuesday, as the dollar declined after US President Donald Trump accused China and Europe of manipulating currencies and criticized the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes. Trader took some encouragement from a private report that a spectacular 53% increase in the number of income-tax returns filed electronically till July 31 has given the government renewed hope of continued high-paced growth in compliance and taxpayer base, even 21 months after demonetisation.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, as traders hopes Beijing and Washington would dial back trade hostilities, though comments from the US president about the yuan and Federal Reserve policy capped gains and weighed on the dollar. Back home, on the sectoral front, Aviation stocks showed mixed reaction, despite a report that giving in to demand from the airlines, the GST Council may propose to bring Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) under the indirect tax regime in its next meeting. Besides, steel ministry has strongly opposed the inclusion of finished steel products in the proposed regional free-trade agreement.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38311.92, up by 33.17 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 38233.22 and 38402.96. There were 16 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.35%, while Small cap index was up by 0.30%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.63%, Industrials up by 0.55%, IT up by 0.54%, Auto up by 0.47% and TECK was up by 0.45%, while Realty down by 0.80%, Consumer Durables down by 0.47%, Bankex down by 0.25%, FMCG down by 0.17% and Telecom was down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 2.73%, Wipro up by 2.48%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.40%, Tata Motors up by 1.56% and Bajaj Auto was up by 0.84%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.88%, ICICI Bank down by 0.84%, Vedanta down by 0.77%, Power Grid down by 0.69% and Bharti Airtel was down by 0.69% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the air travel demand in India continues to be high with the domestic air passenger traffic registering a growth of nearly 21% in the month of July 2018. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, domestic airlines carried 115.57 lakh passengers in July, over to 95.65 lakh passengers carried in the same period last year. India is one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world and has been registering double-digit growth for more than three years.

The data report also showed that the domestic air passenger count has rose 21.79% during January-July 2018. Indian airlines carried 800.40 lakh passengers during period under review as against 657.21 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year. Besides, in terms of passenger load factor (PLF), SpiceJet were leading among all with 93.8% PLF during the month of July 2018, followed by IndiGo (88.7%) and Go Air (87.2%).

In terms of on time performance (OTP), IndiGo topped the list with a figure of 85.5% followed by SpiceJet (80.6%). As per the data for July 2018, as many as 2,001 passengers were denied boarding while 14,045 people were affected by cancellations. Besides, delays of flights impacted 1,35,481 passengers. During July 2018, a total of 714 passenger related complaints had been received by the scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of July 2018 has been around 0.62.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11567.10, up by 15.35 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 11542.50 and 11581.75. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 2.91%, Coal India up by 2.85%, UPL up by 2.42%, Wipro up by 2.32% and Ultratech Cement was up by 1.91%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 1.48%, Titan Co down by 1.25%, Tata Steel down by 1.02%, ICICI Bank down by 1.02% and Vedanta was down by 0.99% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in green; Straits Times rose 2.07 points or 0.06% to 3,206.78, Hang Seng strengthened 123.59 points or 0.45% to 27,721.61, Shanghai Composite surged 38.66 points or 1.41% to 2,737.13, Jakarta Composite advanced 41.77 points or 0.7% to 5,933.96, KOSPI soared 20.44 points or 0.9% to 2,268.32, Taiwan Weighted gained 70.58 points or 0.66% to 10,769.63 and Nikkei 225 was up by 39.94 points or 0.18% to 22,238.94.