Sensex, Nifty hold gains in late morning session

Positive trade continued over the Dalal Street in late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty holding their notable gains. Positive cues from other Asian markets helped key indices to maintain trade in green terrain. Support came with reports that deal activity witnessed a handsome growth in August at USD 8.4 billion, on the back of a healthy jump both in volumes and sizes. There were 219 deals during the month, which was the highest since 2005, and double that of the year-ago August 2020 period when the country was coming out of a national lockdown.

Besides, with easing food prices, retail inflation fell marginally to 5.30 per cent in August. The retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 5.59 per cent in July and 6.69 per cent in August 2020. Inflation is within Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) 2 per cent -6 per cent comfort range for a second month. But it has been above the medium-term target of 4 per cent for nearly two years.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly higher, after export prices in South Korea were up 18.6 percent on year in August, the Bank of Korea said on Tuesday - following the 17.4 percent increase in July. Export prices for manufacturing products advanced 18.6 percent on year and export prices for agricultural, forestry and marine products gained 9.6 percent. Import prices jumped an annual 21.6 percent, up from 19.5 percent in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58363.02, up by 185.26 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 58310.27 and 58482.62. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.08%, while Small cap index was up by 0.68%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.48%, Consumer discretionary up by 1.35%, Auto up by 1.25%, Power up by 0.95% and PSU up by 0.84%, while Telecom down by 0.20% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Tech. up by 1.94%, Indusind Bank up by 1.53%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.48%, Axis Bank up by 1.38% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.37%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.85%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.77%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.41%, HDFC down by 0.40% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.22% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with easing food prices, retail inflation fell marginally to 5.30 per cent in August. The retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 5.59 per cent in July and 6.69 per cent in August 2020. Inflation is within Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) 2 per cent -6 per cent comfort range for a second month. But it has been above the medium-term target of 4 per cent for nearly two years.

The National Statistical Office (NSO) under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its data has showed that the Rural CPI (General) in August 2021 stood at 5.28 per cent as against 5.49 per cent in July. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 5.32 per cent in August as against 5.82 per cent in July. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 163.6, 162.2 and 162.9, respectively, in August 2021.

Inflation in the food basket was 3.11 per cent in August compared to 3.96 per cent in the preceding month. Inflation for food products and beverages is at 3.8 percent. But inflation for edible oils has soared by 33 percent, pulses 8.8 percent, eggs by 16.3 percent and meat 9.2 percent. The downward trajectory for food inflation is more due to fall in vegetable inflation which has moved to (-) 11.7 percent.

The Price data are collected from representative and selected 1114 urban Markets and 1181 villages covering all States/UTs through personal visits by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster. During the month of August 2021, NSO collected prices from 99.7 per cent villages and 98.6 per cent urban Markets while the Market-wise prices reported therein were 87.1 per cent for rural and 87.4 per cent for urban.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17412.70, up by 57.40 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 17389.10 and 17438.55. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 2.08%, HCL Tech. up by 1.90%, Eicher Motors up by 1.53%, Indusind Bank up by 1.50% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.35%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.92%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.58%, Coal India down by 0.58%, Hindalco down by 0.53% and HDFC down by 0.45% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly higher; Nikkei 225 surged 171.71 points or 0.56% to 30,619.08, KOSPI rose 35.63 points or 1.14% to 3,163.49, Jakarta Composite soared 29.24 points or 0.48% to 6,117.40, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 14.95 points or 0.09% to 17,461.26, Straits Times advanced 14.88 points or 0.48% to 3,089.19 and Shanghai Composite gained 1.89 points or 0.05% to 3,717.26. On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 12.94 points or 0.05% to 25,800.87.