Markets trade flat in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made cautious start on Monday despite broadly positive cues from Asian counterparts. Markets are trading flat in early deals. Some cautiousness came in amid foreign fund outflows. Provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 1,023.91 crore on July 28. Also, Reserve Bank of India's data showed India's foreign exchange reserves saw a dip of $1.9 billion, dragging the reserves to $607.03 billion for the week ending on July 21. However, downside remained capped as traders took encouragement with Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the government is focusing on four I’s - infrastructure, investment, innovation and inclusivity to put in place an enabling ecosystem that will catapult India into the league of developed nations by 2047. 

On the global front, most of the Asian markets are trading higher, following the broadly positive cues from global markets on Friday, as traders reacted to data showing the U.S. economy grew more than expected in the second quarter, which helped quell fears of an imminent recession. The data also helped ease concerns about the outlook for interest rates, and raised hopes the Fed will end its tightening cycle soon.

Back home, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for electronics and IT stated that the government will expand the design-linked incentive (DLI) scheme for semiconductor companies to include larger companies - both foreign and Indian, as suggested by the industry stakeholders. In stock specific developments, NTPC surged on strong profit growth in Q1. Power Grid Corp rallied on fund raising reports. TCS gained after announcing it is returning to vertical operations structure.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 66170.63, up by 10.43 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 65998.90 and 66262.94. 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 0.26%, while Small cap index was up by 0.91%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 2.00%, Utilities up by 1.89%, Metal up by 1.20%, Industrials up by 0.76% and PSU up by 0.75%, while FMCG down by 0.36%, Healthcare down by 0.17%, Bankex down by 0.12%, Telecom down by 0.03% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.64%, Power Grid up by 1.90%, Tata Steel up by 1.41%, JSW Steel up by 1.19% and TCS up by 1.15%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.17%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.80%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.68%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.62% and ITC down by 0.59% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, highlighting some aspects for India’s growth, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said the focus of the government is on four Is -- infrastructure, investment, innovation and inclusiveness -- to make India a developed nation by 2047. She said India has necessary wherewithal to meet the goal set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She said besides several investor-friendly reforms undertaken by the government, India has a very vibrant young population and the emphasis on skilling them to suit the requirement of the economy would yield dividend.

With the aim to build India a developed country by 2047, she said ‘the emphasis has been on four different issues (Is). We are looking at infrastructure (first I) in a very big way. In the last 3 to 5 years, consistently, the public expenditure for infrastructure building has been ramped up significantly and it will reach Rs 10 lakh crore in 2023-24.’ She said with infrastructure comes investment (second I), and added that emphasis on investment will promote greater participation of both the public and private sector. 

So, she said, infrastructure is not just going to be physical such as bridges, roads, ports or airports, but also creation of digital infrastructure is given importance. she said ‘we are looking for both public investment and private investment and creating necessary environment, the ecosystem as we often refer to for attracting private investment. And the global discussions which are going on blended finance is also something which we're looking at’. 

Pointing out that innovation is the third I, she said ‘the government has opened up several areas inclusive of the space, nuclear energy, looking at getting out of fossil fuels. We have enough reason to believe the youth today are giving us solutions, which are very good for the frontier technologies that we're talking about, as much as for the legacy issues which persist in India for which we need solutions.’ On the fourth I, inclusiveness, she said ‘as we aim to reach for the developed nation in 25 years by focussing on inclusiveness, making sure that every section of India, the common man, benefits by everything that we do (whether) investment or reforms are trying to take schemes to the people.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19644.30, down by 1.75 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 19597.60 and 19680.75. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 2.71%, Power Grid up by 2.01%, Tata Steel up by 1.33%, Hindalco up by 1.15% and TCS up by 1.15%. On the flip side, Apollo Hospital down by 2.62%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.59%, Britannia Industries down by 1.31%, Asian Paints down by 1.17% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.78% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 342.34 points or 1.03% to 33,101.57, Hang Seng advanced 301.5 points or 1.49% to 20,218.06, Shanghai Composite strengthened 20.65 points or 0.63% to 3,296.58, KOSPI gained 17.86 points or 0.68% to 2,626.18 and Jakarta Composite was up by 5.63 points or 0.08% to 6,905.86. On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted lost 163.47 points or 0.95% to 17,129.46 and Straits Times was down by 4.49 points or 0.13% to 3,366.68.