Indian markets continue to trade in green

Indian equity markets maintained their upward momentum in noon session, following gains in FMCG, Consumer Durables and Realty stocks. Healthy buying was observed in blue-chip stocks like Indusind Bank, Power Grid and ITC. Traders remain energized as India's foreign exchange reserves rose by $2.734 billion to $593.323 billion during the week that ended on June 24. According to the RBI's data, India's foreign currency assets, which are the biggest component of the forex reserves, rose $2.334 billion to $529.216 billion during the said week. Meanwhile, asserting that Indian currency has performed relatively better than others against dollar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government is watchful and mindful of the impact of falling rupee on the country's imports. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as the risk aversion in the market prevailed amid global recession worries counting on major central bank’s affirmation over continued monetary policy tightening to combat surging inflation.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 53041.38, up by 133.45 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 52674.81 and 53067.49. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.37%, while Small cap index was up by 0.50%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.27%, Consumer Durables up by 0.76%, Realty up by 0.69%, Bankex up by 0.60% and Telecom was up by 0.59%, while Metal down by 2.20%, Auto down by 0.74%, Oil & Gas down by 0.62%, Energy down by 0.58% and IT was down by 0.43% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 3.47%, Power Grid Corp up by 2.59%, ITC up by 2.00%, ICICI Bank up by 1.48% and HCL Tech was up by 1.09%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.73%, TCS down by 1.83%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.64%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.81% and Dr. Reddy's Lab was down by 0.65% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, portal PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators) has showed that total outstanding dues owed by electricity distribution companies (discoms) to power producers rose by 4 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 1,32,432 crore in June 2022 as compared to Rs 1,27,306 crore in June 2021. On a sequential basis, total dues in June increased from Rs 1,30,139 crore in May 2022. The PRAAPTI portal was launched in May 2018 to bring transparency in power purchase transactions between generators and discoms.

In June 2022, the total overdue amount, which was not cleared even after 45 days of grace period offered by generators, stood at Rs 1,15,128 crore as against Rs 1,04,095 crore in the same month a year ago. The overdue amount stood at Rs 1,07,636 crore in May 2022. Power producers give 45 days to discoms to clear bills for electricity supply. After that, outstanding dues become overdue and generators charge penal interest on that in most cases.

To give relief to power generation companies (gencos), the Centre enforced a payment security mechanism from August 1, 2019. Under this mechanism, discoms are required to open letters of credit for getting power supply. The Centre had also given some breathers to discoms for paying dues to gencos in view of the COVID-19-induced lockdown. The government had also waived penal charges for the late payment of dues. In May 2020, the government had announced a Rs 90,000-crore liquidity infusion for discoms under which these utilities got loans at economical rates from Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and REC. This was a government initiative to help gencos remain afloat.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15771.55, up by 19.50 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 15661.80 and 15797.45. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 3.53%, Power Grid up by 2.57%, ITC up by 1.95%, ICICI Bank up by 1.48% and HCL Tech was up by 1.15%. On the flip side, JSW Steel down by 4.76%, ONGC down by 3.85%, Tata Steel down by 2.73%, TCS down by 1.83% and Hindalco was down by 1.74% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Hang Seng decreased 68.98 points or 0.32% to 21,790.81, KOSPI fell 5.08 points or 0.22% to 2,300.34, Jakarta Composite lost 171.88 points or 2.53% to 6,622.45 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 126.02 points or 0.88% to 14,217.06.

On the other side, Nikkei 225 surged 218.19 points or 0.84% to 26,153.81, Straits Times advanced 22.51 points or 0.73% to 3,118.10 and Shanghai Composite was up by 8.67 points or 0.26% to 3,396.31.