Key benchmarks add gains; Metal stocks shine

Indian equity benchmarks added gains and continued their firm trade in morning session, on continued buying activities by both funds and retail investors. The sentiment was also bullish following positive trend in global peers and as investors’ awaited June quarter earnings season to begin. Some optimism also came as the Cabinet approved the development of affordable rental housing complexes (ARHCs) for urban migrants and poor as a sub-scheme under the Pradhan Mantri (PM) Awas Yojana. This initiative was first announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat package in May. Market participants also took a note of State Bank of India’s (SBI) report that India needs a calibrated approach to reduce its import dependency on China as the neighbouring country has slowly and steadily built a solid base in both high and low-value imports into India. On the sectoral front, majority of stocks related telecom sector were trading in green as India Ratings’ report stated that fundamentals of the country's telecom sector improved in the March quarter on the back of price hikes in December, ability among telcos to reduce the churn of customers and more subscribers opting for 4G.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as investors tried to look past gathering Sino-U.S. tension and renewed coronavirus lockdowns to upcoming company earnings, hoping that global stimulus efforts will yield upbeat outlooks. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36613.94, up by 284.93 points or 0.78% after trading in a range of 36422.30 and 36635.70. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.53%, while Small cap index was up by 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.02%, Basic Materials up by 1.43%, Bankex up by 1.10%, Energy up by 0.83% and Telecom up by 0.78%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.76%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.62%, HDFC up by 1.98%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.76% and Indusind Bank up by 1.73%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 0.99%, ITC down by 0.82%, Titan Company down by 0.55%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.47% and TCS down by 0.42% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to guard domestic manufacturers from cheap imports, India has again imposed definitive anti-dumping duty on certain types of measuring tapes from China for five years. The duty was imposed on ‘steel and fibre glass measuring tapes and their parts and components’ after the commerce ministry’s investigation arm Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) recommended for continuation of the duty.

The DGTR in its sunset review probe has concluded that there is a continued dumping of the goods from China, and the imports are likely to enter the Indian market at dumped prices in the event of expiry of the duty. An anti-dumping duty of $1.83 per kg will be imposed on some companies, while others will attract $2.56 per kg.

The anti-dumping duty imposed under this notification shall be effective for a period of five years (unless revoked, superseded or amended earlier) and shall be paid in Indian currency. The department had imposed the duty first time on July 9, 2015, for five years.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10783.50, up by 77.75 points or 0.73% after trading in a range of 10733.00 and 10792.05. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 4.68%, Tata Steel up by 3.82%, GAIL India up by 3.16%, JSW Steel up by 3.02% and Vedanta up by 2.63%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.24%, ITC down by 0.82%, UPL down by 0.77%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.72% and Titan Company down by 0.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 202.23 points or 0.9% to 22,640.88, Hang Seng increased 123.18 points or 0.47% to 26,252.36, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 45.28 points or 0.37% to 12,215.47, Shanghai Composite gained 35.17 points or 1.03% to 3,438.61, KOSPI rose 20.28 points or 0.94% to 2,179.16 and Jakarta Composite soared 16.36 points or 0.32% to 5,092.53.

On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 8.54 points or 0.32% to 2,660.95.