Markets continue bull run; Nifty holds 10,800 mark

Indian equity benchmarks continued their bull run in morning session, on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters along with better-than-expected June quarter earnings. Sentiments remained up-beat with report that investments through participatory notes (P-notes) in the domestic capital market surged to Rs 62,138 crore till June-end, making it the third consecutive monthly rise. Adding some optimism, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has asked players to join hands with the government to rescue COVID-19-hit economy by taking up projects on public private partnership (PPP) mode. At the same time, he suggested all stakeholders, including banks, financial institutions, infrastructure, MSMEs, agriculture and industries, to jointly create demand to address the need of liquidity in the economy. Markets participants paid no heed towards SBI’s Ecowrap report stated that retail inflation in the country is likely to remain at elevated levels in the next few months on account of supply constraints driven by labour shortage rather than due to fiscal deficit or other external factors.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed on the back of weak cues from Wall Street on worse-than-expected weekly jobless claims data. Investors also remained cautious amid the rising number of coronavirus cases worldwide. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36680.22, up by 208.54 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 36512.92 and 36728.59. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.05%, while Small cap index was up by 1.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.52%, Consumer Durables up by 1.63%, PSU up by 1.61%, Telecom up by 1.49% and Basic Materials up by 1.43%, while IT down by 1.15% and TECK down by 0.68% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.58%, ONGC up by 2.76%, Titan Company up by 2.22%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.13% and ICICI Bank up by 1.73%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.42%, Infosys down by 1.28%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.97% and Nestle down by 0.75% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has said banks have sanctioned loans of about Rs 1.23 lakh crore under the Rs 3-lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for MSME sector, reeling under the economic slowdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic. However, disbursements against this stood at Rs 68,311 crore till July 15 under the 100 per cent ECLGS for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The latest numbers on ECLGS comprise disbursements by all 12 public sector banks (PSBs), 22 private sector banks and 21 non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). Under the ECLGS, the loan amounts sanctioned by PSBs increased to Rs 69,135.19 crore, of which Rs 41,819 crore has been disbursed as of July 15. At the same time, private sector banks have sanctioned Rs 54,209.97 crore and disbursed Rs 26,492 crore.

The country's largest lender SBI has sanctioned Rs 20,910 crore of loans and disbursed Rs 14,362 crore. It is followed by Punjab National Bank, which has sanctioned Rs 9,121 crore. However, its disbursements stood at Rs 4,032 crore as of July 15. The scheme is the biggest fiscal component of the Rs 20-lakh crore Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package announced by Government in May.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10800.95, up by 61.00 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 10749.65 and 10817.95. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 3.92%, Tata Steel up by 3.50%, JSW Steel up by 3.21%, ONGC up by 2.63% and Tata Motors up by 2.43%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.62%, TCS down by 1.50%, Wipro down by 1.24%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.97% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.93% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Hang Seng increased 152.89 points or 0.61% to 25,123.58, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 46.12 points or 0.38% to 12,203.86, KOSPI rose 12.98 points or 0.59% to 2,196.74 and Straits Times advanced 3.58 points or 0.14% to 2,627.25. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lost 10.79 points or 0.21% to 5,087.58, Shanghai Composite declined 16.28 points or 0.51% to 3,193.82 and Nikkei 225 slipped 113.37 points or 0.5% to 22,656.99.