Sensex, Nifty trade firm in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made a positive start on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump extended a deadline for EU trade deal until 9 July, following a call with European Commission president. Sensex and Nifty are trading firm in early deals with notable gains, led by buying in Power, Auto and Realty counters. Some support came as NITI Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam said that India has become the fourth largest economy in the world, overtaking Japan. He also added that the overall geopolitical and economic environment is favourable to India.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly lower following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street and Europe on Friday, on renewed trade and tariff concerns after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose 50 percent tariffs on imports from the European Union beginning June 1. However, Trump agreed to delay a sweeping 50 percent tariff on EU imports until July 9 over the weekend.

Back home, the Goods and Services Tax Council is expected to convene shortly in New Delhi. Discussions will focus on simplifying tax rates and rationalisation. The future of the compensation cess will also be addressed. In stock specific development, ONGC gained after announcing promising offshore oil and gas discoveries in the Mumbai Offshore basin.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 82427.24, up by 706.16 points or 0.86% after trading in a range of 81867.23 and 82492.24. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.58%, while Small cap index was up by 0.61%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.41%, Auto up by 1.26%, Realty up by 1.24%, Capital Goods up by 1.15% and Metal up by 1.15%, while there are no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.58%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.54%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.76%, Titan Company up by 1.46% and NTPC up by 1.28%. On the flip side, Eternal down by 3.35% and Indusind Bank down by 0.30% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, NITI Aayog CEO B V R Subrahmanyam said that India has become the fourth largest economy in the world, overtaking Japan. He said overall geopolitical and economic environment is favourable to India. He said ‘We are the fourth largest economy as I speak. We are a $4 trillion economy as I speak’.

Citing IMF data, Subrahmanyam said India today is larger than Japan. He said ‘It is only US, China, Germany, which are larger than India and if we stick to what is being planned and what is being thought through, in 2.5-3 years, we will be the third largest economy’.

Regarding the US President Donald Trump's recent statement that he expects Apple iPhones that will be sold in the US to be manufactured in America and not India, or anyplace else, Subrahmanyam said ‘What the tariff will be, is uncertain. Given the dynamics, we will be cheap place to manufacture’. He also said that a second round of asset monetisation pipeline is being prepared and it will be announced in August.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25064.45, up by 211.30 points or 0.85% after trading in a range of 24900.50 and 25079.20. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 2.66%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.50%, Tata Motors up by 2.46%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.21% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.95%. On the flip side, Eternal down by 3.11%, Bharat Electronics down by 0.44%, Shriram Finance down by 0.31%, JSW Steel down by 0.20% and SBI Life Insurance down by 0.19% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Hang Seng slipped 235.2 points or 1% to 23,366.06, Taiwan Weighted lost 57.42 points or 0.27% to 21,594.82, Jakarta Composite declined 41.86 points or 0.58% to 7,172.30, Straits Times fell 16.98 points or 0.44% to 3,865.44 and Shanghai Composite was down by 9.95 points or 0.3% to 3,338.42. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 surged 263.29 points or 0.71% to 37,423.76 and KOSPI was up by 32.09 points or 1.24% to 2,624.18.