Sensex, Nifty cut some gains in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks cut some of their gains in late morning session but managed to remained in green, on the back of positive cues from other Asian markets. Gains got trimmed, amid a private report stating that the country's current account deficit is likely to touch USD 105 billion or 3 per cent of the GDP this fiscal, mainly due to continuously widening trade deficit. Besides, the International Monetary Fund warned that avoiding recession in the United States will be 'increasingly challenging' as it again cut its 2022 U.S. growth forecast to 2.3% from 2.9% in late June as recent data showed weakening consumer spending. The Fund also cut its 2023 real GDP growth forecast to 1.0% from 1.7% on June 24, when it met with U.S. officials for an annual assessment of U.S. economic policies.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after China bank lending grew more-than-expected in June on borrowing demand from corporates after the easing of pandemic-related restrictions. The data from the People's Bank of China revealed that banks extended CNY 2.8 trillion in new yuan loans in June. Economists had forecast lending to rise to CNY 2.4 trillion from CNY 1.89 trillion in May.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 53955.71, up by 69.10 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 53879.93 and 54211.22. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.53%, while Small cap index was up by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.13%, Capital Goods up by 0.74%, Consumer discretionary up by 0.62%, Basic Materials up by 0.60% and Healthcare up by 0.59%, while Utilities down by 1.14%, Power down by 1.13%, Oil & Gas down by 0.94%, Energy down by 0.61% and Telecom down by 0.26% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.35%, Asian Paints up by 1.88%, NTPC up by 1.29%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.21% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.19%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 2.33%, HDFC Bank down by 1.38%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.15%, HDFC down by 0.75% and TCS down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India's retail inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) eased marginally to 7.01 percent in the month of June, 2022 mainly due to slight easing in food prices. In May 2022, retail inflation stood at 7.04 percent and 6.26 per cent in June 2021. Though, this is the sixth consecutive month when the CPI remained above the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) upper margin of 6%. Inflation in the food basket in June 2022 was 7.75 percent, compared to 7.97 percent in the preceding month.

The National Statistical Office (NSO) under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its data has showed that the Rural CPI (General) in June 2022 stood at 7.09 per cent as against 7.08 per cent in May. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 6.92 per cent in June as against 7.08 per cent in May. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 173.6, 171.5 and 172.6 respectively, in June 2022.

As per the data, the inflation print in vegetables eased to 17.37 percent during the month from 18.26 percent in May, while for 'pulses and products' it slowed to (-) 1.02 percent against (-) 0.42 percent. However, the rate of price rise in 'cereals and products' moved up to 5.66 percent, from 5.33 percent in the preceding month. Inflation in the 'fuel and light' category rose to 10.39 percent as against 9.54 percent, while that for fruits increased to 3.10 percent from 2.33 percent.

The Price data are collected from 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 June 2022, NSO collected prices from 99.7% villages and 98.2% urban Markets while the Market-wise prices reported therein were 89.8% for rural and 93.7% for urban.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16085.20, up by 26.90 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 16056.75 and 16140.00. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.49%, Asian Paints up by 1.84%, JSW Steel up by 1.38%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.28% and Tata Consumer Products up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 2.11%, HDFC Bank down by 1.36%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.23%, HDFC down by 0.65% and Reliance Industries down by 0.58% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted added 397.15 points or 2.85% to 14,347.77, Hang Seng increased 130.25 points or 0.62% to 20,974.99, Nikkei 225 surged 94.56 points or 0.36% to 26,431.22, KOSPI rose 14.14 points or 0.61% to 2,331.90 and Shanghai Composite gained 11.82 points or 0.36% to 3,293.29. On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 21.29 points or 0.68% to 3,124.48 and Jakarta Composite lost 36.30 points or 0.54% to 6,681.99.