Key equity barometer pared gains after hitting fresh intraday highs in morning trade. At 10:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 178.43 points or 0.47% at 38,026.08. The Nifty 50 index was up 48.90 points or 0.43% at 11,320.20.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.54%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.39%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1071 shares rose and 690 shares fell. A total of 102 shares were unchanged.
Tata Motors (down 1.95%), Bajaj Finance (down 0.38%) and Bajaj Finserv (up 0.29%) ahead of their Q1 June 2019 results today.
Trading could be volatile as traders roll over positions in the F&O segment from July 2019 series to August 2019 series. The July 2019 F&O contracts expire today,
On derivatives front, the NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, fell 3.66% at 12.2925.
On the options front, Nifty option chain for 25 July 2019 expiry showed a maximum call open interest (OI) of 49.77 lakh contracts at the 11400 strike price. Maximum put OI of 53.47 lakh contracts was seen at 11300 strike price. Options data suggested a trading range for Nifty will be between 11,300 and 11,400.
Most IT stocks rose. MindTree (up 1.01%), Infosys (up 0.95%), Hexaware Technologies (up 0.89%), TCS (up 0.74%), Oracle Financial Services Software (up 0.52%) and Wipro (up 0.04%) advanced. Tech Mahindra (down 1.34%) and HCL Technologies (down 0.44%) declined.
Persistent Systems rose 2.54% while MphasiS shed 0.67% ahead of their Q1 June 2019 result today.
Intellect Design Arena was down 5.97% after the company announced its Q1 June 2019 result after trading hours yesterday, 24 July 2019. On a consolidated basis, Intellect Design Arena reported net loss of Rs 1.89 crore in Q1 June 2019 compared with net profit of Rs 42.98 crore in Q4 March 2018. Net sales fell 13.35% to Rs 342.79 crore in Q1 June 2019 over Q4 March 2018.
Sugar stocks advanced. Shree Renuka Sugar (up 2.03%), Sakthi Sugars (up 1.62%), Rana Sugars (up 1.12%), DCM Shriram Industries (up 1%), Triveni Engineering & Industries (up 0.32%), Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar (up 0.21%) and EID Parry (India) (up 0.21%) advanced. Dhampur Sugar Mills (down 0.59%) and Balrampur Chini Mills (down 2.07%) declined.
The Union cabinet on Wednesday approved the creation of a buffer stock of 4 million tonnes of sugar at an estimated cost of Rs 1,674 crore. The step is aimed at increasing wholesale prices of sugar and improving cash flow to sugar mills, which in turn will help mill owners to clear the dues of farmers.
"The decision will lead to improvement in the liquidity of sugar mills, reduction in sugar inventories, stabilization in sugar prices by alleviating of price sentiments in the domestic sugar market and, thereby, facilitate timely clearance of cane price dues of farmers," according to a cabinet statement.
The Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said the industry has surplus sugar inventory and, therefore, the cabinet decision to subsidize the full carrying cost for 4 million tonnes of sugar for one year amounts to a direct subsidy of Rs 1,674 crore.
Sandhar Technologies was up 0.15%. The company after market hours yesterday, 24 July 2019, announced that it has signed a Joint Venture Agreement with Han Shin Corporation, Republic of Korea. The joint venture is being established for manufacturing and selling, inter-alia, electronic parts and accessories for the automotive industries in India which would include Antenna, Radio Cable, AV/NAVI Cable, GPS/DMB Cable, USB Cable, AVM Cable etc.
Cox & Kings hit 5% lower circuit at Rs 14.05. The company after market hours yesterday, 24 July 2019, announced that it had defaulted on its repayment obligation towards unsecured commercial paper worth Rs 174 crore.
In a separate announcement yesterday, Cox & Kings said that Subhash Chandra Bhargava has tendered his resignation as an independent director of the company with effect from July 23, 2019 due to his personal commitments and other pre-occupations.
As per reports, the Bombay High Court has allowed International Air Transport Association (IATA) to encash bank guarantees provided by tour operator Cox & Kings. The court on Wednesday vacated its interim stay on invocation of bank guarantee after the tour operator withdrew its commercial arbitration petition challenging IATA's action.
Oberoi Realty fell 2.86% after consolidated net profit dropped 50.9% to Rs 152.07 crore on 32.1% decline in net sales to Rs 603.25 crore in Q1 June 2019 over Q1 June 2018.
In a separate announcement, the company reported that its independent director, Anil Harish has resigned from the post citing personal reasons with effect from 24 July 2019.
Dish TV (up 0.93%) and IDBI Bank (down 0.31%) are currently under F&O ban. F&O ban was imposed after these contracts crossed 95% of the market-wide position limit in derivatives market.
Ambuja Cements (up 1.18%), Gruh Finance (up 2.17%), PVR (down 2.30%), Apcotex Industries (up 1.08%), AU Small Finance Bank (up 0.91%), Bank of Baroda (down 0.09%), Biocon (down 0.34%), Grindwell Norton (up 1.85%), IFB Industries (down 0.82%), Taj GVK Hotels & Resorts (down 1.70%), Tata Coffee (up 0.14%), Greenlam Industries (up 2.18%), Tata Steel BSL (down 0.55%), Westlife Development (up 0.15%) and South Indian Bank (up 1.67%) will also announce their Q1 June 2019 results today.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 68.9675, compared with its close of 68.9825 during the previous trading session.
Overseas, most Asian stocks were trading higher on Thursday as semiconductor stocks in Japan and South Korea gained. In Europe, the European Central Bank is set to meet on Thursday and is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged.
In US, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq stock indexes closed at record on Wednesday despite mixed earnings and economic data and antitrust probes into leading U.S. technology stocks. But the Dow ended lower after disappointing earnings from Boeing and Caterpillar.
In economic data, U.S. new home sales rebounded in June, the first gain in three months, but U.S. manufacturers expanded in July at the slowest pace in almost 10 years. IHS Markit said its manufacturing PMI slid to 50 this month from 50.6 in June, marking the lowest level since September 2009 just as the current expansion was getting under way.
A U.S. delegation headed by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is set to travel to China to revive trade talks next week, as per reports, marking the first in-person talks since the Group of 20 summit last month.
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