Bourses manage to keep heads in green terrain

Indian equity benchmarks managed to keep heads in green terrain in morning session, tracking gains in index majors Indusind Bank and SBI. Sentiments remained positive with Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) stating that the proposed free trade agreement between India and the European Union would benefit domestic exporters as EU is one of the biggest traditional markets for the country. Some support also came with a private survey stating that as India continues to maintain the momentum of its economic activities, hiring plans are likely to become stable during the July-September 2021 quarter mainly led by transportation and utilities and the services sector. However, gains remain capped as India Ratings and Research warned that the burden of taxation, particularly indirect taxes, on households has worsened lately and is preventing them from spending more on consumption.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red on cue from Wall Street peers, as the latter saw a mixed close amid lack of market driving activity in stocks. Back home, on the sectoral front, steel industry’s stocks remained in focus as Crisil in its latest report has stated that large steel makers took huge strides in terms of both operations and financial performance last fiscal, increasing their market share by 500 basis points (bps) on-year to 58 per cent despite their share of industry capacity remaining unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52385.84, up by 110.27 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 52204.99 and 52446.92. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.62%, while Small cap index was up by 1.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.29%, Utilities up by 0.91%, Power up by 0.78%, Consumer Durables up by 0.70% and PSU up by 0.69%, while Energy down by 0.22% and Auto down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 1.08%, SBI up by 1.04%, ONGC up by 0.80%, HDFC Bank up by 0.72% and Asian Paints up by 0.63%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.78%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.57%, Reliance Industries down by 0.48%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.46% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the World Bank has projected India's Gross domestic product (GDP) to grow at 8.3 percent in 2021 and 7.5 percent in 2022, even as its recovery is being hampered by an unprecedented second wave of the COVID-19, the largest outbreak in the world since the beginning of the deadly pandemic. It also said in India, an enormous second COVID-19 wave is undermining the sharper-than-expected rebound in activity seen during the second half of Fiscal Year 2020/21, especially in services.

The Washington-based global lender has stated that activity will benefit from policy support, including higher spending on infrastructure, rural development, and health, and a stronger-than expected recovery in services and manufacturing. Although the forecast has been revised up by 2.9 percentage points, it marks significant expected economic damage from an enormous second COVID-19 wave and localised mobility restrictions since March 2021.

It also stated that the pandemic will undermine consumption and investment as confidence remains depressed and balance sheets damaged. Growth in FY 2022/23 is expected to slow to 7.5 percent, reflecting lingering impacts of COVID-19 on household, corporate and bank balance sheets; possibly low levels of consumer confidence; and heightened uncertainty on job and income prospects.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15778.65, up by 38.55 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 15723.10 and 15792.95. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports &SEZ up by 2.13%, SBI Life Insurance up by 1.96%, Grasim Industries up by 1.31%, SBI up by 0.97% and Indusind Bank up by 0.92%. On the flip side, Shree Cement down by 0.95%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.77%, Britannia Industries down by 0.70%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.63% and Tata Consumer Product down by 0.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted dropped 142.26 points or 0.83% to 16,933.95, Nikkei 225 slipped 88.90 points or 0.31% to 28,874.66, Hang Seng decreased 54.33 points or 0.19% to 28,727.05, KOSPI fell 24.91 points or 0.77% to 3,222.92 and Straits Times trembled 9.61 points or 0.3% to 3,157.53.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite soared 8.97 points or 0.15% to 6,008.34 and Shanghai Composite gained 12.26 points or 0.34% to 3,592.37.