Key gauges add gains in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks added some gains in morning deals amid gains in NTPC, Titan Company and Bharti Airtel. Sentiments remained up-beat with Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways’ statement that the bilateral trade between India and the US has grown from $16 billion to $149 billion in the last two decades. He said, the trade is projected to reach $500 billion by 2025. Some support also came with private report stating that India remains an attractive destination for foreign direct investments (FDI) on account of healthy prospects of economic growth and its skilled workforce. Meanwhile, the GST Council might on Friday consider taxing petrol, diesel, and other petroleum products under the single national GST regime, a move that may require huge compromises by both central and state governments on the revenues they collect from taxing these products.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as weak Chinese economic data reinforced worries about slowing growth globally as well as in the world's second-biggest economy amid fraught nerves over a still-dominant pandemic and tapering of central banks' stimulus. On the sectoral front, Cement industry’s stocks remained in watch as the rating agency Icra said cement production declined 12 per cent to 82 million tonne in April-June 2021-22 compared to the previous quarter as COVID-induced lockdowns in various states impacted demand. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58481.02, up by 233.93 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 58272.82 and 58520.04. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.60%, while Small cap index up by 0.72%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 2.51%, Power up by 2.11%, Consumer Durables up by 1.55%, Telecom up by 1.54% and Oil & Gas up by 1.48%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 4.66%, Titan Company up by 3.12%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.13%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1.78% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.19%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.71%, HDFC Bank down by 0.46%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.44%, TCS down by 0.30% and Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.03% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Textiles Ministry Additional Secretary Vijoy Kumar Singh has said that the idea of Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, announced for textiles by the government, was to create huge employment opportunities and extend support to companies that were interested in scaling up business in the sector. He said the advantage of PLI Scheme is to invest in those projects, which are covered under the scheme for the products, and create huge employment and achieve production turnover for companies.

The secretary said ‘As a government we are looking at the creation of employment, opportunities for people, our citizens. So, the creation of employment opportunities is liked by both the central and state governments. So jointly, we will work towards the success of this scheme. That is our objective.’ According to him, the scheme would help create additional employment of over 7.50 lakh people directly. The government would provide incentives worth Rs 10,683 crore to the industry over a period of five years.

Stating that the government would extend support and enable a company to run business on its own, Singh said, the idea is to support the industry in the initial period and once they become of some size and scale themselves, they will be competitive (enough) on their own strength. He also noted that the PLI Scheme for textiles was part of the overall announcement of PLI Schemes for 13 sectors made during the budget for FY 2021-22 with an outlay of Rs 1.97 lakh crore. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17450.50, up by 70.50 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 17386.90 and 17458.80. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 4.49%, ONGC up by 3.83%, Titan Company up by 3.13%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.13% and Power Grid Corporation up by 1.67%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.77%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.55%, HDFC Bank down by 0.46%, Grasim Industries down by 0.36% and TCS down by 0.36% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 279.57 points or 1.1% to 25,222.66, Nikkei 225 slipped 124.25 points or 0.41% to 30,545.85, Taiwan Weighted dropped 49.37 points or 0.28% to 17,385.53, Straits Times trembled 19.51 points or 0.63% to 3,060.86 and Jakarta Composite lost 11.84 points or 0.19% to 6,117.26.

On the flip side, KOSPI rose 9.36 points or 0.3% to 3,158.19 and Shanghai Composite gained 9.80 points or 0.27% to 3,672.40.