Gaining rally continues over Dalal Street

A gaining rally continued over the Dalal Street in early afternoon deals with both Sensex and Nifty holding notable gains, aided by positive cues from other Asian markets along with heavy buying at Banking, PSU and Healthcare counters, amid growing optimism that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in September. Sentiments remained optimistic as the commerce ministry is developing a platform for registering non-tariff barriers (NTBs) faced by exporters and taking up with the concerned countries for their resolution. At present, there is an information gap on these barriers particularly for small items. Besides, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said that the volume of world merchandise trade turned up in the first quarter of 2024 after remaining flat throughout 2023.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as the services sector in China continued to expand in June, although at a slower pace, with a service PMI score of 51.2. That's down from 54.0 in May, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. Central to the latest expansion in services activity was rising new business inflows. Incoming new business increased again in June, extending the sequence of growth to one-and-a-half years.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 79944.04, up by 502.59 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 79754.95 and 80074.30. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.54%, while Small cap index was up by 0.87%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.78%, PSU up by 1.08%, Healthcare up by 0.92%, Telecom up by 0.76% and Industrials up by 0.70%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.24%, Energy down by 0.22% and Realty down by 0.04% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC Bank up by 2.66%, Axis Bank up by 2.08%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.75%, ICICI Bank up by 1.31% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.27%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 1.44%, TCS down by 1.26%, Tata Motors down by 0.35%, Titan down by 0.23% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.21% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Power Secretary Pankaj Agarwal has said that India's peak power demand may surpass the projected 384 GW mark and cross even a new level of 400 gigawatt (GW) by 2031-32. He said that peak power demand had already reached the 250 GW mark in May 2024.  

Agarwal said the way power demand has grown in some states in the last two years, the demand will touch 384 GW and may easily cross 400 GW by 2031-32. He said ‘for this we must have an installed power generation capacity of 900 GW’. The government projection for this year's peak power demand was 260 GW.

The secretary said the anticipated 260 GW peak demand is expected to reach by September. At the onset of the monsoon, the peak power demand has been showing a downward trend over the last few days. As per official data, the peak power demand was at 209 GW on July 1, 2024.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24278.10, up by 154.25 points or 0.64% after trading in a range of 24207.10 and 24307.25. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Consumer Products up by 3.31%, HDFC Bank up by 2.71%, Axis Bank up by 2.22%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.04% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.75%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 1.30%, TCS down by 1.28%, Hindalco down by 1.07%, Tata Motors down by 0.40% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.31% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng advanced 211.58 points or 1.19% to 17,980.72, Jakarta Composite gained 31.56 points or 0.44% to 7,156.70, Straits Times rose 41.06 points or 1.22% to 3,408.96, KOSPI increased 13.15 points or 0.47% to 2,794.01, Nikkei 225 surged 506.07 points or 1.25% to 40,580.76 and Taiwan Weighted added 293.06 points or 1.26% to 23,172.43, while Shanghai Composite weakened 13.58 points or 0.45% to 2,983.43.