Barometers trade in positive terrain; oil & gas shares rises

The key equity indices traded with moderate gains in mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 23,300 level after hitting the days low of 23,206.65 in morning trade. Oil & gas shares advanced after declining in the past consecutive trading session.

At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 227.62 points or 0.30% to 76,716.86. The Nifty 50 index added 91.40 points or 0.36% to 23,343.60.

The broader market outperformed the headline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 1.05% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 1.15%.

The S&P BSE Small-Cap index and S&P BSE Mid-Cap index hit a 52-week high at 49,833.10 and 44,858.79 respectively.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,485 shares rose and 1,334 shares fell. A total of 110 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Oil & Gas index added 1.69% to 11,884.50. The index shed 0.08% in the previous consecutive trading session.

Oil India (up 6.15%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (up 5.46%), Gujarat Gas (up 4.03%), Petronet LNG (up 3.83%), GAIL (India) (up 2.82%), Aegis Logistics (up 2.57%), Mahanagar Gas (up 1.75%), Indian Oil Corporation (up 1.2%), Indraprastha Gas (up 0.95%) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (up 0.83%) edged higher.

On the other hand, Adani Total Gas (down 1.02%), Reliance Industries (down 0.51%) and Gujarat State Petronet (down 0.32%) slipped.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal declined 0.24% to 7.015 as compared with previous close 7.017.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee is edged lower against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 83.5500, compared with its close of 83.5000 during the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 5 August 2024 settlement shed 0.18% to Rs 71,306.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was up 0.06% to 105.21.

The United States 10-year bond yield declined 0.61% to 4.444.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for August 2024 settlement lost 1 cents or 0.01% to $81.62 a barrel.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Adani Enterprises rose 0.82%. The company announced that its defence subsidiary, Adani Defence & Aerospace has signed a milestone cooperation agreement with EDGE Group for combining their expertise in missiles, weapons, unmanned platforms, and cyber systems.

RailTel Corporation of India surged 8.39% after the company announced that it has received a work order worth Rs 11.23 crore from the Ministry of Defence.

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