Key gauges trim some gains in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks came off highs but were trading in the green in morning deals amid gains in Consumer Durables, Capital Goods, Power and Banking stocks. Traders took some support with Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) KV Subramanian’s statement that India's macroeconomic fundamentals are much stronger, and the country is poised for stronger growth on the back of structural reforms, capex push by the government, clean up in the financial sector and rapid inoculation that will help revive the contact-intensive service sectors. Some support also came with data showing that the output of eight core sectors grew by 9.4 per cent in July, mainly due to a low base effect and uptick in production of coal, natural gas, steel, cement and electricity. Besides, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said the ambitious Rs 100 lakh crore-Gatishakti program for holistic and integrated infrastructure development will create huge employment opportunities.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green ignoring the negative cues overnight from Wall Street. However, traders remain concerned as the country continues to struggle to contain the rapid spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus. On the sectoral  front, banking industry's stocks remained in watch with RBI data showing that the non-food credit bank credit grew at 6.2 per cent in July 2021, compared to 6.4 per cent growth a year ago, RBI data showed. Advances to agriculture and allied activities continued to perform well, registering an accelerated growth of 12.4 per cent in the reporting month, against 5.4 per cent in July 2020.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57681.68, up by 129.29 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 57277.88 and 57918.71. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.41%, while Small cap index was up by 0.34%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.46%, Capital Goods up by 1.43%, Power up by 1.12%, Bankex up by 1.10% and Realty up by 0.97%, while Metal down by 1.80%, IT down by 0.75%, TECK down by 0.73%, Basic Materials down by 0.67% and Telecom down by 0.53% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 3.54%, Axis Bank up by 2.71%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.89%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.78% and Nestle up by 1.57%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.33%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.38%, Infosys down by 1.17%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.09% and HDFC down by 0.92% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) KV Subramanian has said that India's macroeconomic fundamentals are much stronger, and the country is poised for stronger growth on the back of structural reforms, capex push by the government, clean up in the financial sector and rapid inoculation that will help revive the contact-intensive service sectors. He also said the GDP data for the first quarter reaffirms the government's prediction of an imminent V-shaped recovery made last year. He noted that India's economic growth surged to 20.1 per cent in the April-June quarter of this fiscal, helped by a low base in the year-ago period, amid a devastating second wave of the COVID-19. 

Subramanian said the growth during the current fiscal would be higher than the pre-pandemic level, and the GDP growth should be in line with the projection made in the latest Economic Survey. Despite the second wave of COVID-19, he expressed hope that the economic growth during the current financial year would be around 11 per cent. He also stated that the banking sector has now developed a cushion to withstand impending bad loans, he said, adding the net profits of public sector banks (PSBs) increased to Rs 31,816 crore in 2020-21. On the inflation, he said it has witnessed a moderation in July compared to the previous month.

CEA said ‘Our expectation is that the inflation in the next few months should be within that range between 5-6 per cent, but less than 6 per cent despite hardening global commodity prices.’ He said very calibrated monetary policy measures and the supply-side measures that have been taken by the government would keep the inflation in that range. He expressed hope that the household consumption should pick up as the inoculation drive is proceeding at a faster pace. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17168.80, up by 36.60 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 17142.30 and 17225.75. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 3.64%, Axis Bank up by 2.91%, Eicher Motors up by 2.17%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.75% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.75%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.15%, Hindalco down by 1.52%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.36%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.32% and JSW Steel down by 1.22% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 296.36 points or 1.06% to 28,385.90, Hang Seng increased 159.36 points or 0.62% to 26,038.35, Straits Times advanced 33.11 points or 1.08% to 3,088.16, Shanghai Composite gained 30.62 points or 0.86% to 3,574.56 and KOSPI rose 2.26 points or 0.07% to 3,201.53.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted dropped 15.27 points or 0.09% to 17,475.02 and Jakarta Composite lost 44.64 points or 0.73% to 6,105.66.