Sensex, Nifty back in green during early noon deals

In a volatile session, Indian equity benchmarks managed to come back in green terrain in early afternoon session, with both Sensex and Nifty trading marginally higher, aided by buying at Utilities and Power counters. Traders were getting relief, as State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Dinesh Khara said the Reserve Bank of India is likely to maintain status quo in the upcoming monetary policy. Some support came with a report stating that withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes by Reserve Bank on May 19 and the subsequent near total return of the currency to the system has buoyed deposit accretion to a six-year high of Rs 191.6 lakh crore in June.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, after Hong Kong's unemployment rate decreased further to the lowest level in nearly four years as the labour market continued to improve alongside the domestic economic recovery. The labor force statistics from the Census and Statistics Department showed that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell slightly to 2.9 percent in the April-June period from 3.0 percent in the March-May period. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 66801.27, up by 6.13 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 66703.61 and 67117.05. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.46%, while Small cap index was up by 0.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.49%, Power up by 1.11%, Consumer Durables up by 0.87%, PSU up by 0.85% and Industrials up by 0.69%, while TECK down by 0.25%, FMCG down by 0.24% and IT down by 0.22% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 3.61%, Indusind Bank up by 2.21%, Tata Motors up by 1.80%, Power Grid Corporation of India up by 1.14% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.13%. On the flip side, TCS down by 0.67%, Asian Paints down by 0.60%, Reliance Industries down by 0.59%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.59% and ITC down by 0.52% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Chairman Naren Goenk has said that decline in Chinese garment exports to Japan provides an immense opportunity for the Indian apparel industry to boost shipments to the island nation. He said a strong Indian garment industry with its unique offerings has a huge scope for Japanese trading companies to source from India. 

Moreover, Goenk said the duty-free access for Indian ready-made garments post-Indo-Japan free trade agreement as against about 9 per cent for China and Turkey is a big advantage for India. He noted that apparel imports into Japan have witnessed a positive mark in the last three years. Japan's total import from the world, which was $28.49 billion in 2018, has now risen to $ 46.72 billion. Japan is the fourth largest garment importer in the world after the US, Germany and France. Out of the total garment import of $23 billion by Japan, India's share is just one per cent. 

Besides, vice-chairman of the council Sudhir Sekhri has said that as India has the largest raw material availability of cotton, jute, silk and wool in the world, supported by the world's second largest spinning and weaving capacity, and 95 per cent value addition, India offers to the world a complete value chain solution from farm to fashion.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19759.85, up by 10.60 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 19727.45 and 19841.65. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 3.47%, Indusind Bank up by 2.29%, Tata Motors up by 1.85%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.28% and Power Grid Corporation of India up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 0.64%, ITC down by 0.62%, LTIMindtree down by 0.58%, Reliance Industries down by 0.51% and TCS down by 0.50% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 surged 402.14 points or 1.22% to 32,896.03, Straits Times rose 17.37 points or 0.53% to 3,271.63 and KOSPI increased 0.62 points or 0.02% to 2,608.24, while Shanghai Composite weakened 1.66 points or 0.05% to 3,196.16, Hang Seng declined 76.58 points or 0.4% to 18,939.14 and Taiwan Weighted lost 111.47 points or 0.65% to 17,116.44.