Local equities continue to show positive movement

Local equity benchmarks continued to show a positive trend in the morning session, with Sensex and Nifty gaining more than 300 and 70 points, respectively. ITC, SBI, and Bharti Airtel were the top gainers, while Yes Bank, Adani Ports & SEZ, Power Grid and ONGC dipped. Sentiments remained upbeat with a private report that after almost a year and half of disruptions in Indian economy due to demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the consumer sentiment is up in the month of July on all fronts from jobs, investments, the health of the economy to personal finance.

The markets took support from a report which stated that trading across borders, payment of indirect taxes and insolvency resolution are the three sets of reforms where India is upbeat, ahead of the release of the World Bank's ease of doing business report later this year. Also, the news that Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) will come into effect soon to provide a higher judicial platform for businesses to redress disputes under the new tax framework, fueled the market rally.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 37,312.59, up by 327.95 points or 0.89 per cent after trading in a range of 37,134.88 and 37,325.62. There were 21 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid-cap index gained 0.60 per cent, while Small-cap index was up by 0.64 per cent. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 2.59 per cent, Telecom up by 1.87, Metal up by 1.32, Bankex up by 1.07 and PSU up was by 0.89, while there were no losing sectoral indices on BSE.