Benchmarks continue to trade higher in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade higher in morning deals, led by gains in Auto and Realty stocks amid positive global cues. Sentiments remained up-beat as the Income Tax Department said tax collected on income of companies surged by 34 per cent in the first four months of the current fiscal that began in April, indicating that a simplified tax regime with low rates is yielding results. Some support also came as the commerce ministry is proposing a host of direct and indirect incentives such as deferral of import duties and exemption from export taxes to revamp Special Economic Zones through a new legislation. Traders also took a note of Former RBI Governor D Subbarao’s statement that India may become a USD five trillion economy by 2028-29 only if the GDP grows at nine per cent per annum consistently for the next five years. He said there are eight key challenges for India to overcome to achieve the dream of $5 trillion economy.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green following the positive cues from global markets, amid recent soft inflation data that raised speculation the US Fed might slow down the pace of monetary tightening. Traders looked ahead to the Fed minutes, due out on Wednesday, for clues about the pace of rate hikes in the future. Back home, aviation industry stocks remained in action as Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the dip in the air turbine fuel (ATF) price and the continuation of this trend will benefit the aviation sector. He said the fall in the ATF rates will have a good impact on airlines under pressure.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59901.26, up by 438.48 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 59673.96 and 59923.03. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.97%, while Small cap index was up by 0.72%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.74%, Realty up by 1.69%, Consumer discretionary up by 1.48%, FMCG up by 1.34% and Industrials up by 1.14%, while Metal down by 0.44% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.60%, Asian Paints up by 2.08%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.73%, Indusind Bank up by 1.49% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.47%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.44%, SBI down by 0.33%, Sun Pharma down by 0.18%, NTPC down by 0.16% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said the dip in the air turbine fuel (ATF) price and the continuation of this trend will benefit the aviation sector. He said the fall in the ATF rates will have a good impact on airlines under pressure.

Notably, ATF prices have been coming down during the last few weeks after jumping to record levels, primarily due to the Russia-Ukraine war that began on February 24. On August 1, the price of ATF in Delhi was Rs 1.21 lakh per kilo-litre, which was around 14 per cent lower than last month. Scindia also said when the ATF price shot up three-fold the airfare was raised by just 20-25 per cent. He said ‘I have removed the fare band from August 30’.

The Union Aviation Ministry had earlier said that limits imposed on domestic airfares will be removed from August 31, after approximately 27 months. The ministry had imposed lower and upper limits on domestic airfares based on flight durations when services were resumed on May 25, 2020, after a two-month lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17827.70, up by 129.55 points or 0.73% after trading in a range of 17764.05 and 17832.95. There were 40 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports &SEZ up by 3.32%, Eicher Motors up by 3.01%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.52%, SBI Life Insurance up by 2.52% and Hero MotoCorp up by 2.15%. On the flip side, Grasim Industries down by 2.28%, Hindalco down by 1.31%, ONGC down by 1.26%, JSW Steel down by 0.52% and Tata Steel down by 0.40% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 8.65 points or 0.03% to 28,880.43, Hang Seng increased 22.78 points or 0.11% to 20,063.64, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 2.54 points or 0.02% to 15,419.89, KOSPI rose 7.20 points or 0.28% to 2,535.14, Shanghai Composite gained 7.78 points or 0.24% to 3,283.87 and Jakarta Composite soared 10.30 points or 0.15% to 7,103.58.

On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 6.99 points or 0.21% to 3,249.83.