Sensex up 150 points as Greece approves reforms; Financials lead

Markets continued to trade higher tracking gains in their Asian peers after Greek parliament approved the austerity reforms. Meanwhile, the narrowing of trade deficit $ 10.8 billion as against $ 11.7 billion in same month previous year lifted sentiment.

By 11:55 am, the Sensex was at 28,342, up by 144 points while the Nifty was at 8,569, up 45 points. Among the broader markets, BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are trading higher by 0.8% and 0.6% each. The market breadth is strong with 1,377 advances against 973 declines on the BSE.

KEY EVENTS

India’s trade deficit narrowed to 10.8 billion in June as compared to 11.7 billion in same month previous year. However, country’s exports contracted for the seventh straight month by 15.82 percent to $22.2 billion on account of slump in global demand.

Greece's parliament has approved the bailout package presented by prime minister Alexis Tsipras. Greece will now be required to implement a series of reforms, target specific budget surpluses, and submit to oversight from its creditors.

Crude oil prices gained after data showed that US crude inventories dropped and refinery demand was high, although the outlook remains for cheap oil as oversupply persists.

STOCK TRENDS

On the sectoral front, all sectoral indices are trading in green with BSE Bankex and Oil & Gas indices up 1% each.

Rate sensitive shares are gaining across the exchange on hopes of a rate cut on the back of narrowing trade deficit data because of declining crude oil prices. Meanwhile, hopes of order inflows from Europe post the Greek bailout deal influenced sentiments. Axis Bank, HDFC twins, SBI, YES Bank, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto are up between 0.3-3%.

SBI, Axis Bank and Yes Bank will launch mobile wallets to take on pre-paid issuers like Paytm and MobiKwik.

South Indian Bank shares have lost 6% after the bank on reported a 48.4% drop in its profit for the June quarter. Net profit dropped to Rs.65.29 crore from Rs.126.65 crore a year ago.

Reliance Industries had gained over 1% as it has entered the 2.7 million tonnes Indian Railways bulk diesel market, challenging state-owned refiners and marketers after a hiatus of nearly eight years.

Tata Steel has climbed nearly 1% as the pension dispute at their UK business that brought the company to the brink of the biggest industrial dispute in 35 years ended, according to media reports.

Hatsun Agro Product has surged 10% after reporting a nearly four-fold jump in net profit at Rs 28.69 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 (Q1).

VA Tech Wabag has rallied nearly 5% after the company said it has won orders worth over Rs 1,000 crore during April-June (Q1) quarter.