Markets continue weak trade in late afternoon session

The Indian equity benchmarks continued their sluggish trade in late afternoon session. ITC, HDFC and Asian Paints were the prime losers among heavy-weights. Sentiments remained down-beat even after India’s exports grew by 67.39 per cent to $32.21 billion in May driven by healthy growth in sectors such as engineering, pharmaceuticals, petroleum products and chemicals. Exports in May last year stood at $19.24 billion and in May 2019 it was at $29.85 billion. Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar has said that the dream of a self-reliant and digital India will only be realized by taking along the agriculture sector. Sector wise, aviation stocks remained in focus with a private report that airlines are slashing salaries and re-negotiating vendor contracts as drastic fall in passengers has hurt revenue. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as the tussle between economic optimism and inflation concern continues to play out in markets. The dollar ticked up. European markets were trading higher, helped by energy and consumer stocks, while strong economic data from U.S. and Europe buoyed investors' sentiment.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 51579.59, down by 355.29 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 51450.58 and 51863.94. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.21%, while Small cap index was up by 1.02%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.34%, Power up by 1.25%, Industrials up by 1.12%, Utilities up by 1.05% and Auto was up by 1.03%, while IT down by 0.84%, TECK down by 0.84%, FMCG down by 0.58%, Bankex down by 0.55% and Telecom was down by 0.31% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 1.89%, Sun Pharma up by 0.81%, Power Grid up by 0.80%, NTPC up by 0.77% and SBI up by 0.73%. On the flip side, ITC down by 2.56%, HDFC down by 1.53%, Asian Paints down by 1.48%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.39% and Titan Company down by 1.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, underlining the importance of the agriculture, the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar has said that the dream of a self-reliant and digital India will only be realized by taking along the agriculture sector.

The Minister also noted that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has shown the way to the country in this regard, based on which the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has taken concrete steps for digitization of agriculture sector.

Tomar further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's determination has invigorated the farming sector and a number of schemes including the historic Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) worth Rs 75,000 crore per annum are being implemented transparently to increase the income of farmers.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15500.25, down by 74.60 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 15459.85 and 15564.05. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports up by 2.37%, UPL up by 1.69%, SBI Life up by 1.61%, Indusind Bank up by 1.32% and HDFC Life Insurance up by 1.31%. On the flip side, ITC down by 2.58%, HDFC down by 1.60%, Asian Paints down by 1.43%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.34% and Axis Bank down by 1.19% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Nikkei 225 surged 131.80 points or 0.46% to 28,946.14, Jakarta Composite soared 84.12 points or 1.41% to 6,031.58, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 2.66 points or 0.02% to 17,165.04 and KOSPI was up by 2.36 points or 0.07% to 3,224.23. On the flip side,Shanghai Composite declined 27.57 points or 0.76% to 3,597.14, Straits Times trembled 28.74 points or 0.9% to 3,158.49 and Hang Seng was down by 170.38 points or 0.58% to 29,297.62.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 23.10 points or 0.33% to 7,103.56, France’s CAC increased 7.23 points or 0.11% to 6,496.63 and Germany’s DAX was up by 15.85 points or 0.1% to 15,583.21.