Benchmarks remain in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks trimmed some gains but continued to trade in green in morning deals, led by gains in Utilities, Power and Consumer Durables stocks.  Trades took support with exchange data showing that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued their buying activity on Tuesday as they bought equities worth Rs 2,115.84 crore. Some support also came with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stating that various issues surrounding cryptocurrencies were discussed at a key G20 meeting and India's inputs will play an important role in formulating a comprehensive global policy for the new-age assets. However, gains remain capped as some concern came with International Monetary Fund Managing Director (MD) Kristalina Georgieva’s statement that the medium-term growth prospects for the global economy remain weak, and elevated food and fertilizer prices are particularly worrying. Georgieva said inflation could remain higher for longer, requiring even more monetary policy tightening. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red despite better than expected quarterly results from Wall Street.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 66946.10, up by 150.96 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 66903.36 and 67117.05. 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 0.41%, while Small cap index was up by 0.54%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.48%, Power up by 1.16%, Consumer Durables up by 1.10%, PSU up by 0.96% and Realty up by 0.64%, while Auto down by 0.17%, TECK down by 0.14%, IT down by 0.14% and FMCG down by 0.05% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 4.14%, Indusind Bank up by 2.43%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1.18%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.98% and Sun Pharma up by 0.94%. On the flip side, TCS down by 0.48%, Asian Paints down by 0.46%, ICICI Bank down by 0.36%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.30% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.29% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the rating agency Crisil’s arm -- Crisil Market Intelligence and Analytics in its latest report has said that India Inc is set to report a 6-8 per cent slowdown in revenue growth in the April-June period, making it the fourth straight quarter of a dip in the key number. However, from a profitability perspective, corporate India is set to report an increase in margins to 20 per cent as against 19.6 per cent in the year-ago period, due to softness in the commodity prices. It also said moderation in the revenue growth will be on the back of low realizations and a high base.

It said the revenue growth will be 2 percentage points lower than the one observed in the preceding January-March quarter, and added that this will be the first time in eight quarters that the listed companies will show a sequential decline in revenue growth. After an analysis of 300 companies from 47 sectors, excluding financial services and oil and gas, the report said 14 sectors are likely to witness a fall in revenue while 15 may have logged slower sequential growth. It said lower realisations and slowing global demand for metals and industrial commodities affected makers of aluminium, steel, ferro alloys and petrochemicals.

It further said revenue of aluminium manufacturers likely fell 14-16 per cent owing to an 18-20 per cent decline in international prices and a sedate growth in volumes, and added that steel products may have logged a 6-8 per cent contraction in revenue on the high base of the previous fiscal and a drop in realisations, which offset volume growth. It noted that the power sector is likely to see a relatively slower 5 per cent revenue growth.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19789.40, up by 40.15 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 19785.80 and 19841.65. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 4.03%, Indusind Bank up by 2.42%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1.16%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.94% and Sun Pharma up by 0.85%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 1.01%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.68%, LTIMindtree down by 0.61%, Asian Paints down by 0.44% and TCS down by 0.40% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted lost 106.19 points or 0.62% to 17,121.72, Hang Seng declined 233.32 points or 1.24% to 18,782.40, Shanghai Composite weakened 8.01 points or 0.25% to 3,189.81 and KOSPI dropped 5.76 points or 0.22% to 2,601.86.

On the flip side, Straits Times rose 10.93 points or 0.34% to 3,265.19 and Nikkei 225 surged 262.14 points or 0.81% to 32,756.03.