Benchmarks trade in range; metal stocks decline

The benchmark indices traded in a narrow range with small gains in mid-morning trade. The Nifty was trading above the 15,800 mark. Metal and auto stocks declined while realty stocks were in demand.

At 11:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 92.35 points or 0.1% at 52,915.14. The Nifty 50 index was up 12.65 points or 0.08% at 15,830.25.

In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.08% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.11%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1591 shares rose and 1400 shares fell. A total of 143 shares were unchanged.

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet reshuffle/expansion will be reportedly taking place on July 7 at 18:00 IST. This will be the first cabinet reshuffle in the second term of the Narendra Modi government.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 184,546,448 with 3,991,715 global deaths.

India reported 459,920 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 404,211 deaths, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Buzzing Segment:

The Nifty Metal index slipped 0.61% to 5,141.15. The index has lost nearly 1% in two trading sessions

Vedanta (down 1.79%), NMDC (down 1.5%), Hindalco Industries (down 1.06%) and Hindustan Zinc (down 0.88%), Steel Authority of India (down 0.65%), Tata Steel (down 0.36%) and JSW Steel (down 0.27%) were top losers.

Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) fell 1.13%. The company said that steel production surged 20% to 2.01 million tonnes (MT) in Q1 FY22 as against 1.67 MT in Q1 FY21. "Solid performance in Q1 FY22 gives us confidence of achieving FY22 production target of 8.0 to 8.5 million tonnes," the company said in a statement. Despite challenging demand conditions in the domestic market, as a result of a severe than expected second wave of COVID-19, JSPL sales rose by 3% to 1.61 MT in Q1 FY22 from 1.56 MT in Q1 FY21. Buoyant export markets continued to provide support with exports accounting for 44% of volumes in the month of June 21 and 34% in 1QFY22. Exports accounted for 58% of total sales volume in Q1 FY21

Stocks in Spotlight:

Shares of Gillette India rose 0.45% to Rs 5,671. The board of the company appointed Gautam Kamath as chief financial officer (CFO) and additional (executive) director of the company effective 1 August 2021. Kamath will hold office as additional director up to the ensuing annual general meeting. He is a Chartered Accountant and an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad with overall experience of over 20 years in finance & accounting, across several industries and geographies.

Mastek fell 0.49%. The IT company appointed former Wipro senior executive Hiral Chandrana as its global chief executive officer. Hiral, who comes with a proven track record of leading and growing digital transformation business, will be based out of the US. In his last role during a 14-year stint at Wipro, Hiral served as the Senior vice president & global head, business application services where he has transformed the $3B applications business to digital; in addition to driving strategic cloud partnerships and M&A's.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks were trading lower on Wednesday following losses on Wall Street with the S&P 500 ending its seven-day winning streak.

US stocks fell on Tuesday as Wall Street kicked off the holiday-shortened week on concerns about the economic outlook and risks from Covid-19 variants.

The ISM Services index, a major gauge of the services sector, slowed to 60.1 in June from a record in the prior month, data released Tuesday showed.

Investors await the release of June Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes due Wednesday for clues about the central bank's behind-the-scenes discussions on winding down its quantitative easing program.

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