Sensex, Nifty maintain gaining rally

A gaining rally maintained over the Dalal Street in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty holding strong gains, aided by heavy buying at IT and TECK counters. Sentiments remained optimistic, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reiterated that it expects the Federal Reserve to begin cutting interest rates later this year. Traders overlooked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Shaktikanta Das’ statement that it was too early to talk about a cut in policy rates given the uncertain global economic environment and a persistently high home consumer inflation, which has trended above the central bank's legally mandated target.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, even after China's exports increased more than expected in June but imports fell unexpectedly. Exports posted an annual growth of 8.6 percent in June, following May's 7.6 percent increase. Shipments were forecast to climb 8.0 percent. Imports dropped 2.3 percent annually, in contrast to the 1.8 percent increase in May.

Back home, auto stocks were in watch, as the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) reported that passenger vehicle wholesales in India experienced a 3% increase year-on-year, reaching 337,757 units in June. According to the data, passenger vehicle dispatches from manufacturers to dealers totaled 327,788 units in June 2023.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 80490.40, up by 593.06 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 79843.39 and 80893.51. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell by 0.31%, while Small cap index was down by 0.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 4.29%, TECK up by 3.37%, Bankex up by 0.44% and Telecom up by 0.08%, while Realty down by 1.55%, Power down by 1.08%, Capital Goods down by 0.85%, Industrials down by 0.71% and PSU down by 0.62% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 6.36%, Infosys up by 3.47%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.40%, HCL Tech. up by 3.12% and Axis Bank up by 1.76%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.16%, NTPC down by 0.95%, ITC down by 0.51%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.48% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.42% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Government e Marketplace (GeM) CEO Prashant Kumar Singh has said that the government's GeM portal has clocked a gross merchandise value of Rs 1,24,761 lakh crore at the end of first quarter (Q1FY25), representing a quarter-on-quarter growth of 136 per cent over last year's Rs 52,670 crore. He said that going by this pace, it will become the world's largest platform. South Korea's KONEPS is the largest such platform in the world. GeM stands at the second position. It is followed by Singapore's GeBIZ. GeM portal was launched on August 9, 2016, for online purchases of goods and services by all central government ministries and departments. 

Singh stated that the procurement by central ministries including CPSEs surpassed Rs 1 lakh crore milestone in Q1FY25 with ministries of coal, defence and petroleum and gas emerging as the top procurers in this quarter. Of this Rs 1 lakh crore, CPSEs share accounted for more than Rs 91,000 crore and during the first quarter, services segment has been the prime mover.  Services buying crossed Rs 80,500 crore during the quarter. In 2023-24, the procurement from this portal had crossed Rs 4 lakh crore. 

Talking about the initiatives of the portal, he said that carrying forward its vision of reaching out to the last mile sellers and with an aim to further simplify public procurement, they are planning to roll out 'GeM SAHAYAK' programme which aims at creating a pan-India network of 6,000-7,000 trained and certified accredited trainers. He said the Sahayaks would offer their services to potential and existing GeM sellers in navigating on the portal and enhancing business opportunities. Buyers too will benefit from their services in terms of creation of bids and other value-added services.

To further promote ease of doing business, he said the platform has drastically reduced transaction charges leviable on sellers. As per the new revenue policy of GeM, the sellers/service providers will be charged only 0.30 per cent of the order value (previously 0.45 per cent) on orders worth more than Rs 5 lakh. He added that these transaction charges would be capped at Rs 3 lakh as against Rs 72.50 lakh being changed earlier.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24496.65, up by 180.70 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 24331.15 and 24592.20. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were TCS up by 6.37%, Wipro up by 5.11%, LTIMindtree up by 4.35%, Infosys up by 3.50% and Tech Mahindra up by 3.27%. On the flip side, Divi's Lab down by 1.48%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.16%, Hindalco down by 1.00%, NTPC down by 0.84% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.47% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite weakened 0.76 points or 0.03% to 2,969.63, KOSPI dropped 34.35 points or 1.2% to 2,857.00, Nikkei 225 slipped 1033.34 points or 2.51% to 41,190.68 and Taiwan Weighted lost 473.1 points or 1.98% to 23,916.93, while Hang Seng advanced 452.21 points or 2.54% to 18,284.54, Jakarta Composite gained 34.94 points or 0.48% to 7,335.35 and Straits Times rose 28.58 points or 0.82% to 3,503.64.