Firm trade persists over Dalal Street in early noon deals

Firm trade persisted over the Dalal Street in early noon deals, as both Sensex and Nifty trading higher with decent gains, on the back of heavy buying in Utilities and Capital Goods stocks. Domestic sentiments remained positive, amid a private report stating that the Reserve Bank of India is expected to pause for a second straight month as inflation eases and market watchers are looking for cues of a shift in policy stance to support growth in Asia’s third largest economy. Besides, Union Minister for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal has said that the government has undertaken several steps to strengthen the judiciary and alternate dispute resolution mechanism which will act as an incentive to foreign investors and help take India-UK relations to new heights.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, after Taiwan consumer price inflation eased in May to the lowest level in nearly two years. The data released by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics showed that the consumer price index, or CPI, rose 2.02 percent year-on-year in May, slower than the 2.35 percent rise in April. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62927.10, up by 134.22 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 62841.95 and 63027.98. 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 by 0.84%, while Small cap index was up by 1.07%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.47%, Capital Goods up by 1.36%, Telecom up by 1.21%, Industrials up by 1.11% and FMCG up by 0.96%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Nestle up by 2.99%, Tata Motors up by 2.96%, Power Grid Corporation of India up by 1.59%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.28% and Axis Bank up by 1.09%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.86%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.84%, ICICI Bank down by 0.70%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.60% and Sun Pharma down by 0.25% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, ahead of the historic US visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India and US have launched a strategic trade dialogue here during which officials reviewed the ongoing cooperation in multilateral export control regimes and agreed to share the best practices to further the bilateral ties. At the inaugural India-US Strategic Trade Dialogue (IUSSTD), the Indian delegation was led by Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra. The US delegation was co-led by Alan Estevez, Under Secretary for Industry.

The dialogue is a key mechanism to take forward the strategic technology and trade collaborations envisaged under the India-US initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET). Prime Minister Modi will be visiting the US from June 21 to 24. It focused on ways in which both governments can facilitate the development and trade of technologies in critical domains such as semiconductors, space, telecom, quantum, AI, defence, bio-tech and others. 

They reviewed ongoing cooperation in multilateral export control regimes and agreed to share the best practices. Both sides agreed to enhance awareness among the industry, academia and other stakeholders about the export control regimes through workshops and other activities. They acknowledged that the dialogue would be instrumental to enabling co-production, co-development and enhanced industrial collaborations in critical technologies. They agreed to set up a regular monitoring group which will review progress in deepening cooperation in the bilateral high-tech trade and technology partnership. The co-chairs agreed to continue the dialogue with the objective of strengthening the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18661.85, up by 62.85 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 18636.00 and 18676.05. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Britannia up by 3.57%, BPCL up by 3.09%, Nestle up by 3.08%, Tata Consumer Products up by 2.80% and Tata Motors up by 2.78%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.88%, Cipla down by 0.75%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.71%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.67% and ICICI Bank down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 slipped 593.04 points or 1.86% to 31,913.74, Jakarta Composite plunged 31.65 points or 0.48% to 6,587.27, Straits Times fell 11.01 points or 0.35% to 3,179.10 and Shanghai Composite weakened 4.56 points or 0.14% to 3,190.78, while KOSPI increased 0.19 points or 0.01% to 2,615.60, Hang Seng advanced 117.99 points or 0.62% to 19,217.27 and Taiwan Weighted added 160.82 points or 0.95% to 16,922.48.