Sensex, Nifty continue to trade marginally higher in early noon session

Indian stock markets continued to trade in positive terrain in the early noon session due to buying in IT, TECK and Healthcare stocks. Buying in frontline stocks such as Infosys, Yes Bank and Sun Pharma were aiding sentiment, while selling in Vedanta, Hero MotoCorp and Larsen & Toubro kept the gains in the markets in check. Sentiments remained optimistic with a report that foreign investors have remained net buyers in the Indian capital markets this month so far, even as the equity segment saw robust outflows post the Budget. Some comfort also came with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the government has succeeded in keeping ‘complete control’ over retail inflation. The government has achieved success in not allowing inflation to raise its ‘dirty’ head to cause inconvenience to the consumers. However, upside remained capped with weak macro-economic data, India's Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growth slipped to 3.1 per cent in May mainly on account of subdued performance of mining and manufacturing sector. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India will come out with a mobile application to help visually challenged people in identifying currency notes as cash still remains a dominant mode of transaction. The RBI said that identification of banknote denomination is key to successful completion of cash-based transactions by visually impaired persons.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green as growth data from China met expectations. Back on street, in scrip specific developments, shares of Future Enterprises were trading lower as the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has arrested the chief financial officer of Future Enterprises, Dinesh Maheshwari, for allegedly evading customs duty worth Rs 14.58 crore. Besides, Avenue Supermarts gained on reporting 32% rise in Q1 consolidated net profit.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38797.26, up by 61.03 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 38719.33 and 39023.97. There were 15 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.85%, while Small cap index was down by 0.55%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.28%, TECK up by 1.95% and Healthcare was up by 0.35%, while Capital Goods down by 1.18%, Metal down by 1.07%, Consumer Durables down by 1.02%, Industrials down by 0.79% and PSU was down by 0.76% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 5.70%, Yes Bank up by 3.29%, Sun Pharma up by 1.86%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.96% and Maruti Suzuki was up by 0.68%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 2.47%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.44%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.39%, Indusind Bank down by 1.13% and Tata Steel was down by 1.13% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) has continued its increasing trend for fifth straight month and hit an eight-month high of 3.18% in the month of June 2019, on higher food prices such as grains, pulses and protein-rich items meat and fish. It was up from 3.05% in the previous month. Besides, in the year-ago period, the retail inflation was at 4.92% in June 2018. Though, in inflation stayed below the RBI’s medium-term target of 4% for an eleventh straight month. Moreover, the overall food inflation based on consumer food price index (CFPI) rose to 2.17% in June as against 1.83% in the previous month.

As per the data of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme, the CPI (Rural, Urban, Combined) on Base2012=100 for June 2019, stood at 2.21%, 4.33% and 3.18%, respectively, compared to 4.93%, 4.85% and 4.92%, respectively in June 2018. The index value of CPI for combined stood at 142.9. The data also showed that CFPI for all India Rural and Urban for June 2019 stood at 0.43% and 5.56%, respectively, compared to 3.66% and 1.56%, respectively in June 2018. The index value of CFPI for combined stood at 141.0 for the month of June.

The inflation for protein-rich 'meat and fish' category quickened to 9.01% during the month as against 8.12% month earlier. For the 'pulses and products' category, the rate of price rise was sharply higher at 5.68% against 2.13%, while the inflation in the 'cereals and products' basket rose to 1.31% from 1.21% in May this year. However, prices of fruits continued to show deflationary trend with inflation standing at (-) 4.18%, while inflation in vegetables eased to 4.66%. For the 'fuel and light' category, retail inflation in June slowed a tad at 2.32%.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11556.10, up by 3.60 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 11532.80 and 11618.40. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 5.90%, Yes Bank up by 3.08%, Sun Pharma up by 1.79%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.72% and Bajaj Finance was up by 0.71%. On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing down by 3.63%, Vedanta down by 2.45%, Zee Entertainment down by 2.12%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.68% and Titan Company was down by 1.55% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 34.22 points or 0.12% to 28,505.84, Shanghai Composite gained 7.50 points or 0.26% to 2,938.05, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 52.08 points or 0.48% to 10,876.43 and Jakarta Composite was up by 52.81 points or 0.83% to 6,426.16. On the flip side, KOSPI fell 3.22 points or 0.15% to 2,083.44 and Straits Times was down by 2.24 points or 0.07% to 3,355.10.