Bourses trade at day’s high levels in late afternoon session

The Indian benchmarks traded at day’s high levels in late afternoon session on account of buying in front line counters. Index heavyweights Wipro, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank boosted the upward move. Traders remain energized as India and the US committed to strengthening bilateral ties and actively pursue the G20 agenda, which includes taking coordinated action to deal with climate change and look forward to alternate mechanisms to fund energy transition. Investors ignored report that India’s exports contracted by 22 per cent, the steepest decline in the last three years, to $32.97 billion in June on account of global demand slowdown, especially in the Western markets like the US and Europe. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as China published mixed data, adding to concerns about economic recovery in the world's second-largest economy. European markets were trading lower as luxury group Richemont slumped on weaker-than-expected organic sales growth. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 66374.78, up by 313.88 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 66015.63 and 66435.04. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.32%, while Small cap index was up by 0.85%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.76%, Energy up by 0.61%, Industrials up by 0.60%, Bankex up by 0.56% and Metal was up by 0.52%, while Auto down by 0.46%, Realty down by 0.15% and Telecom was down by 0.12% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 3.06%, Reliance Industries up by 1.89%, HDFC Bank up by 1.51%, SBI up by 1.45% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.23%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.07%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.79%, Tata Motors down by 0.77%, Titan Company down by 0.74% and Nestle down by 0.64% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to increase circulation of the rupee in the Gulf region, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has inked two memoranda of understandings (MoUs) with the Central Bank of UAE (CBUAE) in Abu Dhabi for establishing a Framework to Promote the Use of Local Currencies viz. the Indian rupee (INR) and the UAE Dirham (AED) for cross-border transactions; and cooperation for interlinking their payment and messaging systems. The two MoUs are aimed at facilitating seamless cross border transactions and payments, and foster greater economic cooperation between the two countries.

The MoU on establishing a framework for the use of local currencies for transactions between India and UAE, aims to put in place a Local Currency Settlement System (LCSS) to promote the use of INR and AED bilaterally. The MoU covers all current account transactions and permitted capital account transactions. Creation of the LCSS would enable exporters and importers to invoice and pay in their respective domestic currencies, which in turn would enable the development of an INR-AED foreign exchange market. This arrangement would also promote investments and remittances between the two countries. Use of local currencies would optimise transaction costs and settlement time for transactions, including for remittances from Indians residing in UAE.

Under the MOU on ‘Payments and Messaging Systems’, the two central banks agreed to cooperate on linking their Fast Payment Systems (FPSs) - Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India with Instant Payment Platform (IPP) of UAE; linking the respective Card Switches (RuPay switch and UAESWITCH); and exploring the linking of payments messaging systems i.e., Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS) of India with the messaging system in the UAE. The UPI-IPP linkage will enable the users in either country to make fast, convenient, safe and cost-effective cross-border funds transfers. The linking of Card Switches will facilitate mutual acceptance of domestic cards and processing of card transactions. The linkage of messaging systems is aimed to facilitate bilateral financial messaging between the two countries.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19662.15, up by 97.65 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 19562.95 and 19673.75. There were 25 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged. 

The top gainers on Nifty were Wipro up by 3.11%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.55%, Grasim Industries up by 2.16%, Reliance Industries up by 1.98% and Adani Enterprises up by 1.78%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.94%, ONGC down by 1.60%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.00%, Tata Motors down by 0.82% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.76% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Taiwan Weighted added 50.58 points or 0.29% to 17,334.29, Jakarta Composite gained 18.45 points or 0.27% to 6,888.02 and Straits Times was up by 0.79 points or 0.02% to 3,249.42. On the flip side, KOSPI dropped 9.3 points or 0.36% to 2,619.00 and Shanghai Composite was down by 28.07 points or 0.87% to 3,209.63.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 18.84 points or 0.25% to 7,415.73, France’s CAC fell 59.72 points or 0.81% to 7,314.82 and Germany’s DAX was down by 30.36 points or 0.19% to 16,074.71.