Benchmarks add some gains in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks added some gains in morning deals, tracking firm global trends and fresh foreign fund inflows. As per exchange data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net buyers in the capital markets as they bought shares worth Rs 1,046.32 crore on Friday. Traders took some support with data showing that the output of eight core infrastructure sectors expanded by 12.7 per cent in June 2022 as against 9.4 per cent in the year-ago period, with all sectors except crude oil registering an uptick in production. The production growth of eight infrastructure sectors was 19.3 per cent in May 2022. Some support also came as government data showed retail inflation for industrial workers declined to 6.16 per cent in June 2022 as compared to 6.97 per cent in the previous month and 5.57 per cent recorded during the corresponding month last year. Meanwhile, the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in its latest data has showed that the central government's fiscal deficit touched 21.2 per cent of the annual target in the June quarter as against 18.2 per cent in the year-ago period.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green following last week's rally on Wall Street. Meanwhile, China's factory activity contracted unexpectedly in July after bouncing back from COVID-19 lockdowns the month before, as fresh virus flare-ups and a darkening global outlook weighed on demand. Back home, sugar industry stocks will be in focus with a private report that the Centre is likely to allow an additional 1.2 million tonnes (MT) of sugar exports in the current season ending September 2022 taking into account higher-than-anticipated domestic production. This additional quota would be over and above 10 MT of sugar exports allowed for the current 2021-22 season.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57893.78, up by 323.53 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 57540.36 and 57945.90. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.86%, while Small cap index was up by 1.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 2.93%, Telecom up by 1.59%, Consumer Disc up by 1.34%, Industrials up by 1.29% and Energy up by 0.97%, while Realty down by 0.13% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 6.70%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.52%, Reliance Industries up by 2.43%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.79% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.64%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.77%, Indusind Bank down by 1.17%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.86%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.45% and TCS down by 0.41% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in its latest report has said that as many as 384 infrastructure projects, each entailing an investment of Rs 150 crore or more, have been hit by cost overruns of more than Rs 4.66 lakh crore. According to the MoSPI, which monitors infrastructure projects of Rs 150 crore and above, out of 1,514 projects, 384 reported cost overruns and as many as 713 projects were delayed.

The report stated that total original cost of implementation of the 1,514 projects was Rs 21,21,471.79 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 25,87,946.13 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 4,66,474.34 crore (21.99 per cent of original cost).
Moreover, it said the expenditure incurred on these projects till June 2022 is Rs 13,30,885.21 crore, which is 51.43 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.

However, the number of delayed projects decreases to 552, if the delay is calculated on the basis of the latest schedule of completion. Further, it showed that for 523 projects neither the year of commissioning nor the tentative gestation period has been reported. Out of the 713 delayed projects, 123 have overall delays in the range of 1-12 months, 122 have been delayed for 13-24 months, 339 projects for 25-60 months and 129 projects have been delayed for 61 months and above.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17263.55, up by 105.30 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 17154.80 and 17280.85. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 6.78%, Tata Motors up by 3.73%, Cipla up by 3.05%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 2.58% and Maruti Suzuki up by 2.50%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.68%, Indusind Bank down by 1.20%, Britannia Industries down by 0.96%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.92% and HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.77% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 146.25 points or 0.53% to 27,947.89, Straits Times advanced 28.58 points or 0.89% to 3,240.14, Jakarta Composite soared 19.76 points or 0.28% to 6,970.88, Shanghai Composite gained 5.22 points or 0.16% to 3,258.46 and KOSPI rose 0.39 points or 0.02% to 2,451.89.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted dropped 47.49 points or 0.32% to 14,952.58 and Hang Seng decreased 65.40 points or 0.32% to 20,091.11.