Sensex, Nifty hit day’s highs as bulls take charge on Dalal Street

Indian equity benchmarks hit the intraday high points in early afternoon session as bulls have taken charge on the Dalal Street, amid heavy buying at Utilities, Power and Oil & Gas counters, despite mixed cues from other Asian markets. Domestic sentiments remained optimistic, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest report on Currency and Finance for the year 2023-24 showed that India is at the forefront of the digital revolution, leveraging on its digital public infrastructure, a vibrant financial technology (FinTech) ecosystem and a conducive policy environment to emerge as the fastest-growing digital economy in the world.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, after the unemployment rate in Japan came in at a seasonally adjusted 2.6 percent in June. That was beneath expectations for 2.6 percent, which would have been unchanged from the May reading. The jobs-to-applicant ratio was 1.23, shy of forecasts for 1.24 - which also would have been unchanged.

Back home, power sector stocks were in watch, as the Union Minister of State (MoS) for Power Shripad Naik has said that India's total installed power generation capacity has grown around 80 per cent over the last 10 years to 4,46,190 MW (4.46 GW) in June 2024. The installed capacity, which was 2,48,554 MW in March 2014, reached 4,46,190 MW in June.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 81710.21, up by 354.37 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 81230.44 and 81756.83. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.45%, while Small cap index was up by 0.85%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 2.50%, Power up by 2.18%, Oil & Gas up by 1.75%, Energy up by 1.40% and PSU up by 1.06%, while FMCG down by 0.30%, IT down by 0.14%, TECK down by 0.13% and Healthcare down by 0.03% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 4.42%, Power Grid up by 3.58%, NTPC up by 3.35%, Asian Paints up by 2.16% and Bajaj Finserv up by 1.55%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 1.16%, Sun Pharma down by 0.68%, ITC down by 0.60%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.50% and TCS down by 0.34% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24937.90, up by 101.80 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 24798.65 and 24961.40. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 5.06%, Tata Motors up by 4.20%, Power Grid up by 3.52%, NTPC up by 3.33% and Asian Paints up by 2.15%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 1.26%, Cipla down by 1.22%, Shriram Finance down by 1.15%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.11% and ITC down by 0.78% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Hang Seng declined 231.44 points or 1.34% to 17,006.90, Jakarta Composite plunged 51.29 points or 0.7% to 7,237.61, Shanghai Composite weakened 11.27 points or 0.39% to 2,880.58 and KOSPI dropped 27.34 points or 1% to 2,738.19, while Straits Times rose 5.45 points or 0.16% to 3,449.63, Nikkei 225 surged 57.32 points or 0.15% to 38,525.95 and Taiwan Weighted added 59.08 points or 0.27% to 22,223.57.