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Benchmarks continue firm trade in morning session
Aug-11-2020

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in the morning session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Traders took support from Food and Public Distribution Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey’s statement that the country's economy is reviving from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and this is visible from the performance of sectors such as FMCG and agriculture. He said that FMCG revenues have come back to almost 85 percent of pre-COVID times, which is an important indicator. Some support also came with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that India’s balance of payments this year is going to be ‘very very strong’ on the back of significant improvement in exports and a fall in imports. He said that good green shoots are visible in the economy and exports have shown a good turnaround. The domestic sentiment was buoyed due a firm trend in Asian market together with rupee appreciation.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, on relief that another round of Sino-U.S. sparring appears not to have spilled over into trade, while hopes for U.S. stimulus lent support to oil and commodity currencies. Back home, on the sectoral front, defence stocks remained in focus with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement that the government will unveil more steps to attract investment in defence manufacturing so that India can produce world-class military platforms and weapons systems.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38480.61, up by 298.53 points or 0.78% after trading in a range of 38350.98 and 38550.74. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.45%, while Small cap index was up by 0.68%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.62%, FMCG up by 1.49%, Basic Materials up by 0.98%, Oil & Gas up by 0.97% and Bankex up by 0.92%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.25%, Telecom down by 0.67% and Healthcare down by 0.30% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.55%, ITC up by 3.42%, Asian Paints up by 2.61%, Axis Bank up by 2.30% and Bajaj Auto up by 2.09%. On the flip side, Titan Co down by 4.31%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.56%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.51%, Power Grid down by 0.23% and Sun Pharma down by 0.18% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said India’s balance of payments this year is going to be ‘very very strong’ on the back of significant improvement in exports and a fall in imports.  He said that good green shoots are visible in the economy and exports have shown a good turnaround.
He said ‘we are in July at about 91 per cent export level of July 2019 figures. Imports are still at about 70-71 per cent level of July 2019. So, broadly our balance of payments this year is going to be very very strong, which is why we feel confident that Indian industry will see opportunities for themselves, will see opportunities of growth.’

India’s exports fell for the fourth straight month in June as shipments of key segments like petroleum and textiles declined but the country’s trade turned surplus for the first time in 18 years as imports dropped by a steeper 47.59 per cent. The country posted a trade surplus of USD 0.79 billion in June.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11358.50, up by 88.35 points or 0.78% after trading in a range of 11320.05 and 11373.60. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.73%, JSW Steel up by 3.49%, ITC up by 3.47%, Hindalco up by 3.28% and Zee Entertainment up by 3.01%. On the flip side, Titan Co down by 4.02%, Shree Cement down by 3.88%, UPL down by 1.63%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.47% and Cipla down by 1.37% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI rose 33.37 points or 1.4% to 2,419.75, Shanghai Composite gained 11.12 points or 0.33% to 3,390.37, Jakarta Composite soared 33.79 points or 0.66% to 5,191.62, Straits Times advanced 5.59 points or 0.22% to 2,551.10, Hang Seng increased 562.03 points or 2.31% to 24,939.46 and Nikkei 225 surged 406.38 points or 1.82% to 22,736.32.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted dropped 74.07 points or 0.57% to 12,819.93.

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