Benchmarks trade flat in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks were trading flat in morning deals, amid weak global cues. Traders were concerned as the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) paper has said inflation is slowing down personal consumption expenditure, which in turn is moderating corporate sales and holding back private investment in capacity creation. Some concern also came as exchange data showed Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 344.81 crore on Friday. However, traders took some support with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal stating that the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) has supported over 16,000 exporters with an aggregate value of business covered to the tune of Rs 6.68 lakh crore in 2022-23 and it is expected to increase to more than Rs 10 lakh crore this fiscal. besides, traders took a note of report that S&P Global Ratings has retained India's Gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast at 6 per cent for FY24 and said it will be the fastest growing economy among Asia Pacific nations. 

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red as crude prices rose on supply concerns due to a turmoil in Russia. Concerns surfaced over the weekend about the possible disruption of Russian oil supply after a challenge by the Russian mercenary group Wagner on Moscow, which was eventually averted. The move also raised questions about political stability in Russia. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62948.82, down by 30.55 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 62915.36 and 63136.09. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.42%, while Small cap index was up by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.89%, FMCG up by 0.62%, Auto up by 0.55%, Consumer Durables up by 0.55% and Industrials up by 0.14%, while Realty down by 0.65%, Metal down by 0.42%, Telecom down by 0.34%, TECK down by 0.17% and PSU down by 0.10% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.38%, Indusind Bank up by 0.89%, Tata Motors up by 0.79%, ITC up by 0.71% and Ultratech Cement up by 0.56%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.16%, Tata Steel down by 0.82%, NTPC down by 0.72%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.61% and Power Grid Corporation down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) has said India has registered a 4.1 per cent growth in its crude steel production at 11.2 MT amid 5.1 per cent downfall in the global output at 161.6 MT in May 2023. 

It said that despite a 7.3 per year-on-year (y-o-y) fall, China remained the top steel producing country in May with 90.1 MT crude steel production. It further stated Japan's output was also 5.2 per cent down y-o-y at 7.6 MT. The United States produced 6.9 MT steel registering a 2.3 per cent fall annually. 

Moreover, it said Russia is estimated to have produced 6.8 MT, up 8.8 per cent. South Korea registered a marginal fall of 0.1 per cent to 5.8 MT. While Germany produced 3.2 MT, Brazil 2.8 MT, Turkiye 2.9 MT and Iran produced 3.3 MT in May 2023.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18671.10, up by 5.60 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 18656.85 and 18722.05. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 2.98%, Tata Consumer Product up by 2.64%, Cipla up by 1.53%, UPL up by 1.46% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.34%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.11%, Tata Steel down by 0.96%, Coal India down by 0.91%, NTPC down by 0.91% and Grasim Industries down by 0.75% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted lost 103.75 points or 0.6% to 17,098.65, Hang Seng declined 27.23 points or 0.14% to 18,862.74, Shanghai Composite weakened 23.67 points or 0.75% to 3,174.23 and Nikkei 225 slipped 54.5 points or 0.17% to 32,727.04.

On the flip side, KOSPI increased 10.31 points or 0.4% to 2,580.41, Jakarta Composite gained 13.17 points or 0.2% to 6,652.90 and Straits Times rose 9.45 points or 0.3% to 3,201.05.