Key gauges continue to trade higher in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade higher in morning deals, led by strong buying interest in Consumer Durables, FMCG, Telecom and Healthcare stocks. Firm global cues and a sharp fall in crude prices overnight also offered some support. Sentiments remained up-beat as the latest retail inflation and industrial output data painted a positive picture of the domestic economy. India's retail inflation eased to a more than two-year low of 4.25 percent in May while industrial output rebounded from a five-month low to grow 4.2 percent in April. Some support also came with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that India and the UAE look to more than double non-oil bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030. At present, the non-oil bilateral trade stands at $48 billion. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed as investors braced for central bank decisions in Europe, Japan and the United States this week, along with U.S. inflation data that will likely influence the Federal Reserve's monetary policy.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 63050.07, up by 325.36 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 62777.04 and 63096.76. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.77%, while Small cap index was up by 0.75%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.46%, FMCG up by 1.38%, Telecom up by 1.03%, Healthcare up by 0.80% and IT up by 0.66%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 2.22%, Titan Company up by 1.82%, ITC up by 1.71%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.69% and Nestle up by 1.46%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.65%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.39%, SBI down by 0.35% and HCL Technologies down by 0.34% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) declined to a 25-month low of 4.25 per cent in May mainly on account of softening prices of food and fuel items. This is the fourth straight month when retail inflation has declined and the third month in a row that Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation remained within the RBI’s comfort zone of below 6 per cent. The CPI stood at 4.7 per cent in April and 7.04 per cent in May 2022. At 4.25 per cent, retail inflation is the lowest since April 2021 when it was 4.23 per cent.The government has tasked the central bank to ensure retail inflation remains at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.

The National Statistical Office (NSO) under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its data has showed that Rural CPI (General) in May 2023 stood at 4.17 per cent as against 4.68 per cent in April. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 4.27 per cent in May as against 4.85 per cent in April. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 179.7, 178.1 and 179.0 respectively, in May 2023.

As per the data, inflation for the food basket was at 2.91 per cent in May, lower than 3.84 per cent in April. The food basket accounts for nearly half of the CPI. Inflation rate for vegetables witnessed a contraction of 8.1 per cent in May. The inflation levels for food & beverage and fuel segments stood at 3.29 per cent and 4.64 per cent, respectively. For cereals, the inflation rate came in at 12.65 per cent as against 13. 67 per cent. Besides, inflation in fuel and light eased to 4.64 per cent, from 5.52 per cent in April.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18699.45, up by 97.95 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 18631.80 and 18703.40. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 2.22%, Titan Company up by 2.00%, ITC up by 1.75%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.65% and Divi's Lab up by 1.46%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.79%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.51%, HCL Technologies down by 0.37%, SBI down by 0.31% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.30% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Taiwan Weighted added 254.4 points or 1.48% to 17,209.77, Hang Seng advanced 78.52 points or 0.4% to 19,482.83, KOSPI increased 7.87 points or 0.3% to 2,637.22 and Nikkei 225 surged 555.79 points or 1.68% to 32,989.79. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite weakened 1.94 points or 0.06% to 3,226.89, Straits Times fell 16.48 points or 0.52% to 3,179.59 and Jakarta Composite plunged 11.98 points or 0.18% to 6,710.39.