Positive trade continues over Dalal Street

Positive trade continued over the Dalal Street in early noon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading marginally higher, on the back of firm cues from other Asian markets along with heavy buying at IT and TECK counters. Traders got support, as Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal said that India is the fastest growing large economy in the world with inflation under control during the last 9 years and said that the Government under the leadership of the Prime Minister had mandated the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to keep inflation in check. Besides, the Reserve Bank said that India's forex kitty jumped $5.929 billion to $595.067 billion for the week ended June 2. The reserves had dropped for two consecutive weeks and declined by $4.34 billion to $589.14 billion in the previous reporting week.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as Indonesia's consumer confidence improved in May to the highest level in one year, supported by better assessments of current and future economic conditions. The survey data from the Bank of Indonesia showed that the consumer confidence index rose to 128.3 in May from 126.1 in the previous month. A reading above 100 indicates optimism among households. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62695.95, up by 70.32 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 62615.20 and 62801.68. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.32%, while Small cap index was up by 0.62%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.44%, TECK up by 1.36%, Realty up by 1.13%, Metal up by 0.77% and Oil & Gas up by 0.72%, while Capital Goods down by 0.53%, FMCG down by 0.22%, Consumer Durables down by 0.21% and Power down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Technologies up by 2.29%, Infosys up by 2.07%, NTPC up by 1.78%, TCS up by 1.09% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.05%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 1.21%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.06%, Power Grid Corporation of India down by 0.86%, ITC down by 0.86% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.80% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) in its latest data has showed that the unemployment rate in India among people aged 15 years and above fell to 7.7 per cent in May 2023, from 8.5 per cent in the previous month. The unemployment rate inched down as a consequence of a fall in the labour participation at 441.9 million, which implies a fall in the number of people who entered the labour market in search of work.

According to the data, compared to April, labour participation rate (LPR) fell by 1.1 percentage point to 39.6 per cent in May. This drop in LPR in May was expected because April witnessed a large number of people entering the labour force but only a small share was able to secure employment in the month. This was bound to discourage many from searching for work in the month of May. As a result, the labour force shrunk in size from 453.5 million to 441.9 million.

It further showed that the urban labour market recorded a fall in the number of employed as well as unemployed people. The 4.5 million fewer people in the urban labour force in May was the result of a combination of a decline in jobs by around 2.4 million and a fall in the number of unemployed in urban India by 2.1 million. This resulted in a total of 129.5 million people in the urban workforce, and around 13 million unemployed persons. Rural India also displayed a similar trend, posting a fall in both employment and unemployment numbers. The rural labour force reduced to 299.4 million in May from 306.5 million in the previous month.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18588.40, up by 25.00 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 18559.75 and 18633.60. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Technologies up by 2.28%, Infosys up by 2.07%, BPCL up by 1.93%, NTPC up by 1.72% and Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.23%. On the flip side, Titan Co down by 1.26%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.07%, ITC down by 0.90%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.87% and Power Grid Corporation of India down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 168.83 points or 0.52% to 32,434.00, Taiwan Weighted added 68.97 points or 0.41% to 16,955.37, Hang Seng advanced 17.35 points or 0.09% to 19,407.30, Straits Times rose 4.69 points or 0.15% to 3,191.66 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 1.43 points or 0.04% to 3,232.84, while Jakarta Composite plunged 0.05 points to 6,693.97 and KOSPI dropped 11.81 points or 0.45% to 2,629.35.