Firmness persists on positive global cues; Nifty above 10,500

The market barometers were trading in a narrow range near the day's high in mid-morning trade. Shares across Asia were upbeat after US-based Pfizer Inc said its experimental COVID-19 vaccine showed encouraging results in early testing.

At 11:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 240.01 points or 0.68% at 35,654.46. The Nifty 50 index added 79.30 points or 0.70% at 10,502.75.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.33% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.78%.

The market breadth favored the buyers. On the BSE, 1473 shares rose and 917 shares fell. A total of 144 shares were unchanged.

 

Coronavirus Update:

India reported 2,26,947 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 17,834 deaths, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Total coronavirus cases worldwide stood at 10,694,228 so far with 516,210 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty PSU Bank index shed 0.38% to 1,474.05. The index jumped 3.63% on Wednesday.

Among the index constituents, Jammu and Kashmir Bank (up 4.94%), Indian Bank (up 0.84%), Bank of Maharashtra (up 0.45%), Indian Overseas Bank (up 0.43%), CBI (up 0.28%) and SBI (up 0.08%) advanced.

Canara Bank (down 1.52%), Bank of Baroda (down 1.07%), UCO Bank (down 1%) and Union Bank of India (down 0.46%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight :

NMDC rose 0.99% to Rs 81.85. The state-owned miner said its iron ore production was flat at 2.52 million tonnes (MT) in June 2020 compared with June 2019. Iron ore sales declined 6.77% to 2.48 MT in June 2020 as against 2.66 MT in June 2019.

Tata Motors was up 0.30% to Rs 101. The company's total domestic automobile sales slumped 82% to 23,845 units in Q1 June 2020 as against 1.31 lakh units in Q1 June 2019.Sales were impacted by a sharp decline in the production of commercial as well as passenger vehicles owing to the lockdown and subdued market demand.

Total commercial vehicles (CV) sales were down 90% to 10,476 units while the total passenger vehicles (PV) sales slumped 61% to 14,571 units in Q1 FY21 over Q1 FY20.

Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) gained 0.33% to Rs 154.20 after the company recorded a 12% growth in sales volumes to 1.56 million tonnes (MT) and 8% rise in standalone steel (including pig iron) production to 1.67 MT in Q1 June 2020 over Q4 March 2020 (Q-o-Q).

The export sales contributed to 58% of total sales volumes in Q1 FY21. The company's consolidated sales rose by 7% to 2.07 MT (Q-o-Q) during Q1 FY21. Consolidated production fell 4% (Q-o-Q) to 2.03 MT in Q1 FY21.

Global Markets :

Asian stocks rose across the board on Thursday, taking cues from the overnight rally on Wall Street as hopes for development of a coronavirus vaccine offset some of the concerns about rising coronavirus cases in the United States.

Investors continued to monitor the escalating tension between American and Beijing, over the Hong Kong issue.

As per media reports, China said it will announce reciprocal curbs on U.S. media outlets in the country. The comment reportedly comes after the United States said in June it would start treating another four major Chinese media outlets as foreign embassies, following similar moves on other outlets earlier in the year, in a move likely to further sour fraught ties between the world's top two economies, media reports said.

The US stock market finished session mostly higher on Wednesday, 01 July 2020, with the Nasdaq close at a record high, as bullish investors took heart from cheering economic data and news of a potential coronavirus vaccine.

The ADP National Employment Report showed the nonfarm private sector created 2.4 million jobs in June, with 70% of new jobs in the leisure, hospitality, trade and construction industries. Meanwhile, data from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) showed index of US factory activity jumped to a reading of 52.6 last month from 43.1 in May, ending three straight months of contraction, or readings below 50.

Further boosting sentiments was minutes from the Federal Reserve's June policy meeting that showed policymakers broadly agreed to make full use of the tools at the central bank's disposal to support a recovery from the recession triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Investors were also encouraged by increasing optimism for a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine. The US drug maker Pfizer Inc said a COVID-19 vaccine being developed with German biotech firm BioNTech showed promise and was found to be well-tolerated in early-stage human trials.

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