Key gauges remain in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in green in morning deals led by gains in Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv and NTPC. Sentiments remained positive as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that will look to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors ranging from power to road and railways. She also said the asset monetisation does not involve selling of land and it is about monetising brownfield assets. Projects have been identified across sectors, with roads, railways and power being the top segments. Some support also came with IT industry body Nasscom’s statement that India has the potential to become the world's second-largest cloud talent hub with the combined effort of government bodies, education and skilling organisations and technology providers. However, gains remain capped as some concern came with the government’s statement that summer-sown crop planting in India has been lagging as the country received below-normal rainfall, raising concerns about food grain production in Asia's third biggest economy. Also, a private report stated that India’s volatile and below-normal monsoon rainfall may create challenges for inflation and economic growth in rural areas over the medium-term.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green on an extended bounce on Wall Street as investors drew comfort from full approval granted to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and on easing worries of an imminent tapering of stimulus by the Federal Reserve. Back home, on the sectoral front, coal industry’s stocks remained in focus as the government identified 160 coal mining assets worth an estimated at Rs 28,747 crore for monetisation over four years till FY25.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 55686.49, up by 130.70 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 55536.84 and 55816.70. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.54%, while Small cap index was up by 0.55%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.01%, Metal up by 1.87%, PSU up by 1.42%, Utilities up by 1.37% and Power up by 1.24%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.44%, FMCG down by 0.37% and Auto down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.58%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.94%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.66%, NTPC up by 1.50% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.23%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.05%, Asian Paints down by 0.86%, HDFC down by 0.73%, Nestle down by 0.71% and HCL Technologies down by 0.70% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, ICRA Ratings in its latest report has said that the roots of the economic recovery deepened in July 2021, with the further easing of the state-wise restrictions, especially across the southern states. It said the unlocking in the country has manifested itself in improving performance across various high-frequency industrial and service sector indicators, mobility, and toll collections in July 2021.

According to the report, despite a normalizing base, eight of the 15 high-frequency indicators recorded an encouraging improvement in their year-on-year (YoY) growth in July 2021. Moreover, it said 10 of the 13 non-financial indicators recorded a month-on-month (MoM) uptick in July 2021, although the pace of the improvement expectedly eased from the levels seen in June 2021, when the state-wise unlocking had commenced.

The report further said the YoY performance of GST e-way bills, fuel consumption, electricity generation, the output of Coal India Limited (CIL), vehicle registrations, domestic passenger traffic, etc. improved in July 2021 compared to June 2021. Moreover, it said the worsening in the YoY performance of some of the remaining indicators such as the output of passenger vehicles (PVs), scooters, and motorcycles, was primarily due to the unfavorable base effect. It, however, said the sequential momentum of growth eased in July 2021, after having recorded a sharp uptick in June 2021.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16533.70, up by 37.25 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 16495.30 and 16585.25. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.36%, Tata Steel up by 2.50%, Indian Oil Corporation up by 2.18%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.97% and Bajaj Finserv up by 1.82%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.10%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.99%, Tata Motors down by 0.99%, Divi's Lab down by 0.94% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.88% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 392.16 points or 1.56% to 25,501.75, Nikkei 225 surged 260.68 points or 0.95% to 27,754.92, Shanghai Composite gained 34.84 points or 1% to 3,511.97, KOSPI rose 36.30 points or 1.17% to 3,126.51, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 96.80 points or 0.58% to 16,838.64 and Straits Times advanced 20.78 points or 0.67% to 3,108.34.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lost 32.20 points or 0.53% to 6,077.63.