Domestic indices trade firm in early deals; Titan leads gainers

Indian equity benchmarks extended their previous session’s rally with gap-up opening on Thursday following strong cues from global markets. Domestic indices are trading firm in early deals on account of board based buying in all the sectoral indices. Sentiments got a boost as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a series of measures to attract foreign flows in a bid to protect the local currency amid depleting foreign exchange reserves. India’s foreign exchange reserves have depleted by $38 billion to below $600 billion since the Russian invasion of Ukraine late February. Adding some more optimism on the street, Finance ministry released the fourth instalment of revenue deficit grant of Rs 7,183 crore to 14 states for the current fiscal. Meanwhile, the commerce ministry has recommended imposition of anti-dumping duty on high-quality glass, used in construction, refrigeration, solar energy and other industries, from Bangladesh and Thailand to guard domestic players from cheap imports.

Global cues remained supportive with most of the Asian markets are trading higher following the broadly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, as traders digested the latest batch of minutes from the US Fed's latest monetary policy meeting, which showed the central bank remains committed to bringing down inflation. Back home, edible oil industry stocks were in focus with a private report that edible oil industry has assured the government of further reduction in retail prices by at least Rs 10-15 a litre in the next few weeks. In stock specific movement, Titan rose as its April-June quarter sales were up nearly three-fold from last year. Nykaa parent FSN E-Commerce Ventures gained after it announced its foray into men's innerwear segment.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 54049.79, up by 298.82 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 54011.83 and 54249.74. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.74%, while Small cap index was up by 1.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 2.47%, Realty up by 1.48%, IT up by 1.38%, Consumer Disc up by 1.33%, Oil & Gas up by 1.25%, while there was no loser on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan Company up by 5.04%, Asian Paints up by 1.96%, NTPC up by 1.94%, Wipro up by 1.83% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.62%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 0.90%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.77%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.18%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.09% and ITC down by 0.09% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid the rupee falling against the US dollar, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has further liberalised norms to boost inflows of foreign exchange including doubling the borrowing limit under the External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) route. The central bank said it has been closely and continuously monitoring the liquidity conditions in the forex market and has stepped in as needed in all its segments to alleviate dollar tightness with the objective of ensuring orderly market functioning.

The measures taken by the central bank comes in the backdrop of rupee depreciating by 4.1 per cent against the US dollar during the current financial year so far (up to July 5) amid the ongoing geopolitical tensions.

In order to further diversify and expand the sources of forex funding so as to mitigate volatility and dampen global spillovers, the central bank has decided to undertake five measures to enhance forex inflows while ensuring overall macroeconomic and financial stability. The measures include easing norms for FPI investment in debt market, and increasing the ECB limit under the automatic route from $750 million or its equivalent per financial year to $1.5 billion.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16085.00, up by 95.20 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 16072.05 and 16139.50. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan Company up by 5.29%, BPCL up by 2.04%, Asian Paints up by 2.03%, NTPC up by 1.94% and Wipro up by 1.73%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 0.85%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.75%, Cipla down by 0.43%, Britannia Industries down by 0.35% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 379.74 points or 1.45% to 26,487.39, Straits Times rose 5.98 points or 0.19% to 3,109.64, Taiwan Weighted jumped 363.11 points or 2.60% to 14,348.62, KOSPI added 41.79 points or 1.82% to 2,333.80 and Shanghai Composite was up by 17.07 points or 0.51% to 3,372.42. On the other hand, Hang Seng fell 97.84 points or 0.45% to 21,488.82 and Jakarta Composite was down by 2.07 points or 0.03% to 6,644.34.