Benchmarks trade flat in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks erased most of their initial gains and were trading flat in morning deals. Traders got anxious with data from project tracker the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) showing that new investment projects announced in the manufacturing sector declined in the three months ended June 2023.  Some concern also came with private report stating that white-collar hiring in India witnessed 3 per cent decline in June as sectors such as IT, Retail, BPO, Education, FMCG and Insurance also showed cautious hiring sentiments. However, traders took some support with provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed that foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 1,995.92 crore on July 3. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed as traders seem cautious and reluctant to make significant moves amid uncertainty about the pace of economic growth amid rising interest rates.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65249.86, up by 44.81 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 65171.06 and 65586.60. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.04%, while Small cap index was up by 0.16%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.53%, Capital Goods up by 0.31%, Industrials up by 0.29%, PSU up by 0.20% and Auto up by 0.13%, while Energy down by 0.71%, Oil & Gas down by 0.66%, Telecom down by 0.60%, FMCG down by 0.31% and Metal down by 0.18% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 7.29%, Bajaj Finserv up by 4.89%, Titan Co up by 1.20%, SBI up by 0.78% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.73%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.67%, Reliance Industries down by 1.35%, Axis Bank down by 0.98%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.68% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, NITI Aayog CEO B V R Subrahmanyam has emphasised on the need to focus on transparency with regard to states' finances as greater transparency will help states raise resources from market at competitive rates. He also made a case for having a fiscal council like institution to better manage the debt trajectory of the Centre and states.

He said transparency is more important than uniformity and states should ensure that everything gets reported in some form or the other because the market values transparency. Citing an example, he said, five southern states accounted for 93 per cent of off- budget borrowing last year while all the high deficit states like West Bengal, Punjab and Rajasthan have low off-budget borrowing. He mentioned ‘It is all because of market discipline...people are more willing to lend to these five states as compared to West Bengal, Punjab and Rajasthan.’ 

He added there are takers of papers issued by Tamil Nadu or Karnataka but no one for West Bengal or Punjab. Moreover, he said ‘If you don't have a developed bond market, you (states) go through this government of India, RBI route for raising resources. If you have developed bond markets, and you have transparency, I think market disciplines will operate and as I said they're probably operating in Rajasthan Punjab for investment’. Besides, he said that the Centre also needs to further improve transparency with regard to Extra Budgetary Resources (EBR) and bring in discipline for cesses and surcharges

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19327.80, up by 5.25 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 19300.00 and 19413.50. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 7.49%, Bajaj Finserv up by 5.27%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.35%, Titan Company up by 1.42% and Adani Ports &SEZ up by 1.10%. On the flip side, Eicher Motors down by 4.49%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.71%, Grasim Industries down by 1.44%, Reliance Industries down by 1.42% and ONGC down by 1.29% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; KOSPI dropped 5.68 points or 0.22% to 2,596.79, Jakarta Composite plunged 6.74 points or 0.1% to 6,689.98, Straits Times fell 5.64 points or 0.18% to 3,201.46 and Nikkei 225 slipped 361.04 points or 1.08% to 33,392.29.  On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted added 50.79 points or 0.3% to 17,134.99, Hang Seng advanced 106.13 points or 0.55% to 19,412.72 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 2.15 points or 0.07% to 3,246.13.