Sensex, Nifty remain higher in early afternoon deals

Firm trade continued over the Dalal Street in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading with notable gains, on account of buying at PSU and Consumer Durables counters, despite negative cues from other Asian markets. Heavy gains garnered by industry majors Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv also helped indices to remain in green. Some support came after India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant asserted that there is no shortage of funds for good startups with strong business models. He said the innovation and startup ecosystem is strongly positioned to find solutions to challenges facing the world today.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, even after Indonesia's inflation rate slowed more-than-expected in June to reach the lowest level in more than a year, largely due to lower food prices. The data from the statistics bureau showed that the consumer price index climbed 3.52 percent year-on-year in June, slower than the 4.00 percent increase in May.  The latest inflation was the lowest since April last year, when prices had risen 3.47 percent.

Back home, on the sectoral front, telecom stocks were in watch, as Union Minister of Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw unveiled the Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA), a collaborative platform consisting of public and private companies, academia, research institutions, and Standards development organizations, in order to drive innovation and collaboration in next-generation wireless technology.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65501.75, up by 296.70 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 65171.06 and 65586.60. There were 19 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining, while one stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.20%, while Small cap index was up by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 0.69%, Consumer Durables up by 0.67%, Bankex up by 0.63%, Capital Goods up by 0.46% and Metal up by 0.42%, while Telecom down by 0.64%, Oil & Gas down by 0.49%, Energy down by 0.45%, Auto down by 0.19% and FMCG down by 0.10% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 7.45%, Bajaj Finserv up by 5.54%, Titan Company up by 1.65%, SBI up by 1.61% and HDFC Bank up by 1.16%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.62%, Reliance Industries down by 1.00%, Asian Paints down by 0.70%, Axis Bank down by 0.62% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant has asserted that there is no shortage of funds for good startups with strong business models. He said the innovation and startup ecosystem is strongly positioned to find solutions to challenges facing the world today. He advocated a multi-pronged approach of 'fund of funds', credit enhancement schemes, and a sharp focus on good governance for a robust startup ecosystem. 

Kant stated that Indian startups have successfully demonstrated the power of population-scale solutions at low cost. He said that there is no funding winter in startup space, and pointed to ‘spring’ of capital availability for good startups. The world is flushed with funds looking for well-structured good projects. He underlined the importance of self-regulation and good governance for startups and entrepreneurs.

He further said startup innovators start innovating and lose out on good governance. Today's startup is tomorrow a Fortune 500 company. So issue of financial propriety and governance is important. He also said ‘We must build culture of great, good governance among startups, which must be done by startups themselves’. He pointed out that Indian start-ups must give priority to good governance and financial management since inception, and not consider these as an afterthought.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19384.05, up by 61.50 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 19300.00 and 19413.50. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 7.42%, Bajaj Finserv up by 5.61%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.39%, SBI up by 1.63% and Titan Company up by 1.61%. On the flip side, Eicher Motors down by 5.29%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.61%, Grasim Industries down by 1.58%, Reliance Industries down by 1.02% and ONGC down by 1.01% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 361.04 points or 1.08% to 33,392.29, KOSPI dropped 9.16 points or 0.35% to 2,593.31, Straits Times fell 5.61 points or 0.18% to 3,201.49, Jakarta Composite plunged 5.21 points or 0.08% to 6,691.51 and Shanghai Composite weakened 2.45 points or 0.08% to 3,241.53, while Hang Seng advanced 26.71 points or 0.14% to 19,333.30 and Taiwan Weighted added 56.57 points or 0.33% to 17,140.77.