Indian benchmarks trade higher in morning deals; RBI policy awaited

Indian equity benchmarks are trading near their neutral lines on Monday morning session ahead of Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) policy review later today. Though, there is wide expectation of RBI keeping the rates unchanged but from some corners there are buzz of a quarter basis points cut in the CRR rate, if it happens markets will get a boost and may extend their last session’s rally. On the global front, the US markets ended lower once again on Friday after IMF estimates raised concern about the early recovery of the country; also traders preferred to remain on sidelines ahead of FOMC meet in the coming week. While, all the Asian equity indices, barring South Korean Kospi Composite, were trading in the green as investors opted to pile-up positions in beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks after a huge sell-off last week. However, the up-side remained capped as investors remained little cautious ahead of the Fed policy meeting over Tuesday and Wednesday.

Back home, on the sectoral front, consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by technology and auto, while banking, realty and metal remained the top losers on the BSE. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 943 shares on the gaining side against 704 shares on the losing side while 75 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19249.90; about 71 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19177.93, and has touched a high and a low of 19257.41 and 19150.74 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19189.78, up by 11.85 points or 0.06%. There were 13 stocks advancing against 16 declines and one remains unchanged on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 52.31% stocks advancing against 43.59% declines. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.04% and 0.31% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 0.68%, Teck up by 0.60%, Auto up by 0.55%, IT up by 0.54% and Capital Goods up by 0.29%, while Bankex down by 0.54%, Realty down by 0.52%, Metal down by 0.51%, Power down by 0.50% and FMCG down by 0.40% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.01%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.07%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.42%, HDFC up by 1.18% and Infosys up by 0.92%.

On the flip side, Sterlite Industries was down by 1.87%,  Jindal Steel was down by 1.13%, Tata Motors was down by 1.06%, Wipro was down by 0.90% and Tata Steel was down by 0.75% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report, foreign direct investment by Indian companies declined by 76 percent in May to $1.82 billion from the previous month. The investments include the equity, debt as well as guarantees issued for overseas ventures. Overall Indian companies issued guarantees worth $1.21 billion, extended loans worth $291 million and invested in foreign equities worth $319 million. Meanwhile, in April, overseas direct investment by Indian companies stood at $7.63 billion.    

Among the companies, who emerged as major players in investing overseas include, Piramal Enterprises and Cox & Kings India among others. Piramal Enterprises issued a guarantee worth $258 million to its joint venture in USA, while Cox & Kings India also issued a guarantee worth $246 million to wholly owned subsidiary in UK. Other companies were Mahindra & Mahindra, Ushdev International, and JSW Steels.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,820.40; about 12 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,808.40, and has touched a high and a low of 5,825.55 and 5,793.35 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,804.15, down by 4.25   points or 0.07%. There were 16 stocks advancing against 33 declines, while one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were M&M up by 2.73%, Lupin up by 1.74%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.73%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.19% and HDFC up by 1.14%.

On the flip side, Sesa Goa down by 1.55%, Power Grid down by 1.47%, IDFC down by 1.40%, Jindal Steel down by 1.40% and Axis Bank down by 1.39% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 1.84 points or 0.09% to 2,163.88, Hang Seng surged 282.03 points or 1.34% to 21,251.17, Jakarta Composite jumped 34.88 points or 0.73% to 4,795.63, KLSE Composite increased 7.94 points or 0.45% to 1,770.13, Nikkei 225 soared 229.77 points or 1.81% to 12,916.29, Straits Times added 24.02 points or 0.76% to 3,185.45 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 52.26 points or 0.66% to 7,990.00.

On the flip side, KOSPI Composite was down by 0.85 points or 0.04% to 1,888.39.