Benchmarks pare some of gains in early noon session

The local equity markets have pared some of their gains but are still trading in positive terrain in early noon session. Both Sensex and Nifty were trading above their crucial 36,800 and 10,850 levels, respectively, following gains in Capital Goods, Realty and Basic Materials stocks. Healthy buying was observed in blue-chip stocks like Tech Mahindra, Yes Bank and Asian Paints. Traders were encouraged with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the government planned steps to improve the state of the economy fairly quickly after getting inputs from business leaders.  Some support also came in with a private report stating that India's economy needs external capital flow to grow at 9% and touch $5 trillion in the next five years. Meanwhile, a private report states that the Reserve Bank of India is expected to cut key policy rates by 25 basis points taking the benchmark repo rate to 5.50 percent.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red as the American stocks slumped to the sharpest session drop this year in midst of intensified trade war between the world’s two largest economies, United States and China. Back on street, in scrip specific developments, shares of Lupin gained as ANSM completes inspection at its Mandideep facility. Berger Paints advanced on reporting 32% rise in Q1 consolidated net profit.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36809.23, up by 109.39 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 36536.59 and 36933.13. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.69%, while Small cap index was up by 0.99%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.21%, Realty up by 1.16%, Basic Materials up by 1.09%, Metal up by 1.05% and Consumer Durables was up by 0.92%, while Energy down by 0.58%, Oil & Gas down by 0.46%, Power down by 0.21%, PSU down by 0.15%, Utilities was down by 0.02% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 2.93%, Yes Bank up by 2.22%, Asian Paints up by 1.67%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.58% and Indusind Bank was up by 1.56%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.37%, NTPC down by 0.99%, ONGC down by 0.99%, Reliance Industries down by 0.74% and Bajaj Auto was down by 0.42% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry has said that banks have agreed to take measures as per RBI guidelines to review their lending rates as they have not commensurately transmitted to borrowers benefits of reduction in the policy rate by the RBI. It also highlighted that since December 2018, the monetary policy has been eased substantially with policy rates being cut by 75 basis points and the policy outlook changed to accommodative. The release was issued after a meeting between Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and heads of public sector banks (PSBs) as well as private lenders, including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Citi Bank.

In the meeting, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar has said that a range of issues connecting to credit growth, micro, small and medium and enterprises (MSMEs), automobiles, timely transmission of rate cuts, digitisation, service tax-related issues were discussed at length. He also said that the idea is to take stock of everything and spur the credit growth, especially in the automobile sector, in the agriculture sector, in the MSMEs and also look at the 'co-origination' with the NBFCs and HFCs, where the banks have the credit availability so that they can join hands together and lending reach to the last mile.

Further, Sitharaman talked about issues related to the increase in public shareholding in listed companies from 25 percent to 30 percent as well as levy of surcharge on super riches. She said market regulator SEBI has already started consultations with various stakeholders about the increase in public shareholding to 30 percent in listed entities. She noted that SEBI has started the exercise of hearing various stakeholders and is having its own consultations. She said “from the ministry side, we have not initiated anything either way.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10897.05, up by 34.45 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 10813.80 and 10938.65. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing up by 3.53%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.45%, Yes Bank up by 2.16%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.13% and Coal India was up by 2.09%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 4.35%, Cipla down by 3.00%, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.52%, Wipro down by 1.28% and ONGC was down by 1.03% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 273.91 points or 1.05% to 25,877.41, Nikkei 225 slipped 158.62 points or 0.77% to 20,561.67, Straits Times trembled 18.63 points or 0.58% to 3,175.88, Jakarta Composite lost 60.57 points or 0.98% to 6,115.13, KOSPI fell 26.26 points or 1.35% to 1,920.72, Shanghai Composite declined 38.02 points or 1.35% to 2,783.48 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 10.65 points or 0.1% to 10,412.76.