Benchmarks continue to trade marginally in red in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade marginally in red in morning deals, tracking weakness elsewhere in Asia following a sharp drop in China's services PMI reading for June. Some concern also came with Icra Ratings’ report that states continue to pay higher interest rates to investors for their debt, with the latest weighted average cost rising to 7.46 per cent at Tuesday's auctions wherein nine states raised Rs 16,200 crore. However, losses remain capped as some support came with S&P Global Ratings analyst Neel Gopalakrishnan’s statement that the companies tracked by the global rating agency S&P in India are in good credit shape due to strong underlying growth and accommodative balance sheets. Traders also took a note of report that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has reviewed progress of implementation of Budget schemes with secretaries of finance ministry and Corporate Affairs Secretary. Besides the review of implementation of various schemes of Union Budget, the minister underlined the importance of continuous assessment of progress to ensure that the schemes are implemented in a time bound manner. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red after a slowdown in China's services activity dented sentiment and as markets turned their focus to the release of Federal Reserve minutes and a key US jobs report later in the week.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65385.05, down by 94.00 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 65317.91 and 65584.33. 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 0.52%, while Small cap index was up by 0.59%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 0.93%, Power up by 0.86%, Utilities up by 0.75%, Oil & Gas up by 0.67% and PSU up by 0.63%, while Realty down by 0.56% and Bankex down by 0.24% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 2.76%, ICICI Bank up by 1.81%, ITC up by 1.27%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1.10% and Nestle up by 0.83%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 3.02%, HDFC down by 2.94%, Wipro down by 0.63%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.32% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.31% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Government of India is organizing an International Conference on Green Hydrogen (ICGH-2023) during 5th - 7th July 2023 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, to bring together the global scientific, policy, academic and industrial leaders to discuss recent advances and emerging technologies in the entire green hydrogen value chain. 

The conference will enable the sector stakeholders to explore the evolving green hydrogen landscape and innovation-driven solutions in the sector, thus strengthening the sustainability ecosystem of the sector.

The aim of the Conference is to explore how world can establish a Green Hydrogen ecosystem and foster a systemic approach for meeting the global goals for decarbonization through Green Hydrogen. Apart from domain-specific research interactions on hydrogen production, storage, distribution and downstream applications, the conference will also discuss green financing, human resource upskilling and startup initiatives in this area. The conference will enable to share and learn from international best practices in the sector.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19370.75, down by 18.25 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 19344.70 and 19421.60. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Divi's Lab up by 3.02%, Indusind Bank up by 2.71%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 2.53%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.35% and ICICI Bank up by 1.82%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 3.09%, HDFC Bank down by 3.01%, Tata Consumer Product down by 1.00%, Hindalco down by 0.87% and Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.58% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted lost 85.85 points or 0.5% to 17,054.92, Hang Seng declined 268.31 points or 1.4% to 19,147.37, Shanghai Composite weakened 16.67 points or 0.52% to 3,228.68, KOSPI dropped 11.68 points or 0.45% to 2,581.63, Straits Times fell 14.55 points or 0.46% to 3,189.22 and Nikkei 225 slipped 154.58 points or 0.46% to 33,267.94, while Jakarta Composite gained 23.59 points or 0.35% to 6,705.34.