Key benchmark indices edged higher in early trade on positive Asian stocks. At 9:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 68.92 points or 0.22% at 31,144.65. The Nifty 50 index was up 24.05 points or 0.25% at 9,602.10.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.5%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.54%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1,069 shares rose and 398 shares fell. A total of 50 shares were unchanged.
Overseas, most Asian stocks were trading higher. US stocks fell for the fourth time in five days as selling in technology shares resumed.
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) left policy unchanged today, 16 June 2017, maintaining its aggressive monetary stimulus aimed at lifting inflation, which continues to show weakness despite brighter spots elsewhere in the economy. The BOJ board voted to keep its target for 10-year Japanese government bond yields at around zero and a shorter-term interest rate at minus 0.1%, as widely expected by economists. The bank also reiterated that it would continue to buy government bonds at an annual pace of about 80 trillion ($720 billion).
Meanwhile, Washington remained in focus as the special counsel investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election was said to be planning to interview two top U.S. intelligence officials about whether President Donald Trump sought their help to get the FBI to back off a related probe of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Markets have risen since November's election, in large part on bets that Trump's economic agenda would accelerate growth and stoke corporate profits. However, various controversies with his administration have been seen as reducing the odds he can get those initiatives passed.
Back home, Reliance Industries (RIL) fell 0.61%. RIL and BP yesterday, 15 June 2017 announced that they are moving forward to develop already-discovered deepwater gas fields, bringing new gas production for India. The two companies have agreed to deepen and expand their partnership to work jointly across a wide range of areas throughout India's energy sector. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 15 June 2017.
RIL and BP announced that they will award contracts to progress development of the 'R-Series' deep water gas fields in Block KGD6 off the east coast of India. The project is expected to produce up to 12 million cubic metres (425 million cubic feet) of gas a day, coming on stream in 2020.
This is the first of three planned projects in Block KGD6 that are expected to be developed in an integrated manner, producing from about 3 trillion cubic feet of discovered gas resources.
Development of the three projects, with total investment of Rs 40000 crore ($6 billion), is expected to bring a total 30-35 million cubic metres (1 billion cubic feet) of gas a day new domestic gas production onstream, phased over 2020-2022.
Infosys fell 0.89%. Infosys announced the appointment of Karmesh Vaswani as the Global Head - Retail, CPG & Logistics (RCL) and Nitesh Banga as the Global Head of Manufacturing, effective 15 July 2017. Karmesh Vaswani and Nitesh Banga are both career Infoscions who have held strategic portfolios across the organization for nearly a decade. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 15 June 2017.
TCS rose 0.53% after the company announced that it has launched ignio for SAP ERP to help customers run their operations in SAP more effectively. ignio is a cognitive automation solution for enterprise IT. ignio has also achieved certified integration with SAP ERP. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 15 June 2017.
ICICI Bank rose 0.46% after the company said that the committee of executive directors of the bank is scheduled to meet on 20 June 2017 to consider fund raising by way of issuance of senior unsecured long term bonds in the nature of debentures in single/multiple tranches on private placement basis. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 15 June 2017.
On the macro front, merchandise exports have shown growth of 8.32% in dollar terms valued at $24014.62 million during May 2017 as compared to $22170.62 million during May 2016. Merchandise imports rose 33.09% and were valued at $37856.34 million during May 2017 from $28443.52 million in May 2016. The trade deficit for May 2017 was estimated at $13841.72 million as against the deficit of $6272.90 million during May 2016. The data was released by government after market hours yesterday, 15 June 2017.
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