Sensex, Nifty turn positive in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks cut all of their losses in late morning session to turn positive, despite negative cues from other Asian markets. Traders got relief, as the commerce ministry is working to release the new five-year foreign trade policy (FTP) before September this year and Districts as Export Hubs scheme would be part of that document, which aims at promoting exports and job creation. Some comfort came with reports that the windfall tax on oil produced within India and fuel exported overseas will make up for more than three-fourths of the revenue that the government lost when it cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to cool soaring inflation.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower, after Indonesia's consumer prices increased at a faster than expected rate in June. The data from statistics bureau showed that the consumer price index increased 4.35 percent year-over-year in June, following a 3.55 percent rise in May. Economists had expected inflation to accelerate to 4.17 percent. Core inflation was 2.63 percent in June, while economists had forecast 2.72 percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 53016.13, up by 108.20 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 52674.81 and 53067.49. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.26%, while Small cap index was up by 0.46%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 0.99%, Power up by 0.67%, Bankex up by 0.54%, Utilities up by 0.53% and Realty up by 0.53%, while Metal down by 2.27%, Auto down by 0.81%, Oil & Gas down by 0.62%, Energy down by 0.59% and Basic Materials down by 0.47% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 3.22%, Power Grid up by 2.28%, ITC up by 2.09%, ICICI Bank up by 1.38% and HCL Tech. up by 1.29%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.67%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.83%, TCS down by 1.54%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.75% and Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.73% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a  specialised division of Reserve Bank of India, in its data has showed UPI-enabled digital transaction remained above Rs 10 lakh crore in June for the second month in a row.

The transaction value under Unified Payments Interface (or BHIM UPI) digital payments in June 2022 stood at Rs 10,14,384 crore, down by 2.6 per cent from the previous month. It showed that The UPI-led payments during the month were in correspondence to a total of 5.86 billion transactions.

It showed that in May 2022, the UPI transactions were valued at Rs 10,41,506 crore involving total number of 5.95 billion transactions. In April, the UPI transactions were worth Rs 9,83,302 crore through a total of 5.58 billion transactions.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15756.40, up by 4.35 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 15661.80 and 15797.45. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 3.26%, Power Grid up by 2.15%, ITC up by 1.99%, HCL Tech. up by 1.44% and ICICI Bank up by 1.34%. On the flip side, JSW Steel down by 4.85%, ONGC down by 4.04%, Tata Steel down by 2.77%, Hindalco down by 2.36% and Cipla down by 1.75% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly lower; Jakarta Composite was down by 171.88 points or 2.53% to 6,622.45, Hang Seng slipped 129.25 points or 0.59% to 21,730.54, Taiwan Weighted lost 143.98 points or 1.00% to 14,199.10 and KOSPI fell 20.92 points or 0.91% to 2,284.50. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 rose 164.08 points or 0.63% to 26,099.70, Straits Times gained 27.06 points or 0.87% to 3,122.65 and Shanghai Composite was up by 4.58 points or 0.14% to 3,392.22.