Barometer gauges maintain gains in early noon session

Indian stock markets continued to trade in positive terrain in the early noon session due to buying in Telecom, Metal and TECK stocks. Buying in frontline stocks such as Tata Motors - DVR, ONGC and HCL Technologies were aiding sentiment, while selling in Sun Pharma, Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindustan Unilever kept the gains in the markets in check. Traders were encouraged by Crisil’s latest report which stated that the system-wide non-performing assets (NPAs) stock declined massively to 9.3 per cent in last fiscal year (FY19), after tripling to 11.5 per cent in the four fiscals till March 2018. The decline was much faster than the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) estimate. Investors took note that the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is planning to establish a ‘National Data Warehouse on Official Statistics’ where technology will be leveraged for using Big Data Analytical tools for further improving the quality of macro-economic aggregates. Meanwhile, within 10 days of the Modi government winning a second term, the finance ministry took a major step to clean up the income tax department and ‘compulsorily retired’ a dozen high-ranking officers facing charges ranging from corruption and disproportionate assets to non-performance.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green; as investors turned hopeful of further progress on US-China trade talks after Donald Trump inked trade deal with Mexico. Back on street, in scrip specific development, shares of Hero MotoCorp gained on becoming first two-wheeler manufacturer to get BS-VI certification. On sectoral front, auto stocks edged lower as Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) data showed that the domestic passenger vehicle sales declined 20.55 per cent to 2,39,347 units in May from 3,01,238 units in May 2018.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39874.97, up by 90.45 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 39760.02 and 39933.64. There were 22 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.27%, while Small cap index was up by 0.01%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 0.80%, Metal up by 0.68%, TECK up by 0.62%, IT up by 0.60% and Basic Materials was up by 0.45%, while Realty down by 0.57%, Healthcare down by 0.27%, Capital Goods down by 0.21% and FMCG was down by 0.18% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.41%, ONGC up by 2.31%, HCL Technologies up by 1.96%, Vedanta up by 1.96% and Yes Bank was up by 1.69%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 3.71%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.03%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.85%, Coal India down by 0.42% and Larsen & Toubro was down by 0.40% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) ministry’s additional secretary Ram Mohan Mishra has said that ministry is working on developing enterprise facilitation centres at block level across the country to make MSMEs more competitive and help them integrate with big enterprises. He also noted that these centres will help disseminate information to micro and small enterprises and identify issues faced by them.

Mishra has stated that the ministry is also working on improving the capacity of enterprises that exist at the lower rung of supply chain, so that they can organically join the chain and supply their material by improving quality and becoming price competitive. He also said that the government is more focused on facilitation, because markets move at their own pace. He said “we facilitate in such a way so as to reduce the cost and upgrade quality, so that the products get accepted in the market.”

The secretary further said that the government's effort was to make the entire eco- system symmetrical so that the overall cost goes down, quality improves, and help the MSMEs integrate to the supply chain. He also listed down seven aspects the ministry is trying to help small enterprises fine-tune: human capacity development, knowledge services, access to finance, technology, infrastructure, market access, and ease of doing business. He added that this will help reduce risk factor for the enterprise, which will in turn help them get funding from banks.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11944.00, up by 21.30 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 11904.35 and 11959.95. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 2.40%, Vedanta up by 2.24%, HCL Technologies up by 2.03%, Yes Bank up by 1.84% and Bharti Infratel was up by 1.81%. On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing down by 5.77%, Sun Pharma down by 3.84%, BPCL down by 2.09%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.07% and Dr. Reddys Lab was down by 1.03% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in green; Shanghai Composite gained 56.44 points or 1.98% to 2,908.57, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 41.29 points or 0.39% to 10,607.76, KOSPI rose 13.61 points or 0.65% to 2,113.10, Straits Times advanced 16.32 points or 0.51% to 3,204.43, Nikkei 225 surged 72.52 points or 0.34% to 21,206.94, Hang Seng increased 231.18 points or 0.84% to 27,809.82 and Jakarta Composite was up by 7.36 points or 0.12% to 6,296.97.