Stocks hovered in a small range in morning trade. At 10:15 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 53.96 points or 0.15% at 35,376.34. The Nifty 50 index was up 13.85 points or 0.13% at 10,750. Cement stocks gained. Telecom stocks saw mixed trend. Good GDP data announced by the government boosted market sentiment.
Key benchmark indices nudged higher in early trade following good GDP data announced by the government after market hours yesterday, 31 May 2018.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.09%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.24%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned negative from positive in morning trade. On the BSE, 871 shares rose and 1020 shares fell. A total of 88 shares were unchanged.
On the macro front, Markit Economics will unveil the result of a monthly survey on the performance of India's manufacturing sector in May 2018 today, 1 June 2018. The Nikkei Manufacturing PMI in India increased to 51.6 in April 2018 from 51 in the preceding month.
India's GDP rose at 7.7% in the fourth quarter of 2017-18 compared with 6.1% in the same period last year, and a revised 7% in the quarter ended December, government data released after market hours yesterday, 31 May 2018 showed. For the full financial year, GDP grew at 6.7% compared with 7.1% in the previous year.
The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stands at 124.2 in April, 2018, which was 4.7% higher as compared to the index of April 2017, government data released after market hours yesterday, 31 May 2018 showed. Its cumulative growth during April to March, 2017-18 was 4.3%. The Eight Core Industries comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
Cement stocks gained. Ambuja Cements (up 1.46%), ACC (up 1.01%) and Shree Cement (up 0.05%) gained. UltraTech Cement (down 0.12%) fell.
Grasim Industries was off 0.72%. Grasim has exposure to the cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.
Telecom stocks saw mixed trend. Bharti Airtel (up 0.05%) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 0.06%) rose. Reliance Communications (down 7.22%) and MTNL (down 0.61%) fell.
Shares of Bharti Infratel rose 0.65%. Bharti Infratel is a provider of tower and related infrastructure and is a unit of Bharti Airtel.
Idea Cellular rose 1.62% after the company announced completion of sale of its pan-India standalone tower business, by way of divesting its entire stake in ICISL (100% subsidiary of Idea), to ATC Telecom Infrastructure (ATC). The transaction has been closed with an enterprise value of Rs 4000 crore for approximately 9,900 standalone towers.
Vodafone's sale of its standalone tower business to ATC has already been completed earlier for an enterprise value of Rs 3850 crore. With this, both Idea and Vodafone India have now monetised the standalone tower assets for a total enterprise value of Rs 7850 crore, as per the timelines provided at the time of the announcement in November 2017, strengthening the financial position of the merged entity. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 31 May 2018.
Overseas, most Asian stocks slipped after the Trump administration's tariffs on imports from key allies sent US and European stocks into a tailspin. US stocks fell yesterday, 31 May 2018 as the president's escalation of trade tensions with Canada, Mexico and the European Union hammered American industrial and financial shares.
The Trump administration announced it's imposing a 25% tariff on steel imports and a 10% tariff on aluminium imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico effective midnight Friday.
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