HOLDING UP

Lower than projected June month's inflation numbers, besides pushing the equity markets out of intra-day low level, have earned some extra points for bourses, on mounting hopes that RBI's putting an end to anti-inflationary stance, would slash key policy rates, to bolster the growth of the sagging economy. 30 scrip sensitive index, Sensex, on BSE, is a striking distance of 17250 level, while 50 share index, Nifty, too has gained some additional points, to trade in proximity to 5250 level. The broader indices, meanwhile too imitating the pattern of larger indices, have gained additional traction. Stocks from Health Care, Bankex and Auto counters are the ones that are supporting the uptrend of the bourses. On the flip side, stocks from IT, TECk and Metal counters, are the one's that are capping the uptrend of the bourses.

However, the trend seen in Indian equity markets could reverse by the end of the trade as European markets have got off to a negative start, while some of Asian pacific indices, including, Singapore's Strait Times, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted and China's Shanghai Composite have turned negative. European shares got off to a negative start as investor's await for company earnings reports, and also as investors look for hints about stimulus measures during Bernanke's biannual testimony to the U.S. Congress on the economy on Tuesday and Wednesday. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1311:1214, while 100 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,245.35 up by 31.65 points or 0.18% after trading as high as 17,282.30 and as low as 17,162.13. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The broader indices too recovered from intra-day's low level; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading higher by 0.07% each.

The top gainers on the BSE sectoral space were, HC up by 1.35%, Consumer Durable up by 1.09%, Bankex up by 0.74%, Auto up by 0.54% and Oil & Gas up by 0.38% while, IT down by 1.53%, Metal down by 1.22%, TECk down by 0.61%, Realty down by 0.29% and CG down by 0.16% were top losers on the index.

Bharti Airtel up by 3.96%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 2.42%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.33%, Cipla up by 1.51% and Sun Pharma up by 1.49% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Tata Steel down by 3.24%, Jindal Steel down by 2.60%, Infosys down by 2.01%, TCS down by 1.57% and Gail India down by 0.88% were the major losers in the index.

Meanwhile, offering little relief to Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the wholesale price index (WPI), India's main inflation gauge, rose at surprisingly lower-than-expected 7.25 percent for the month of June, as compared to 7.55% (Provisional) for the previous month and 9.51 percent during the corresponding month of the previous year.

The much awaited figure, was also way below than the consensus estimates of 7.60 percent. Meanwhile, build up inflation in the financial year so far was reported at 1.99 percent as compared to a build-up of 2.41 percent in the corresponding period of the previous year. However, April month's inflation figure was revised sharply higher from 7.23 percent to 7.50 percent.

The index for primary articles group, which has a weightage of 20.12 percent in overall WPI, rose 0.1 percent to 216.4 from 216.1 for the previous month, largely because of 1.4 percent jump in index of 'Food Articles'.

The index for 'Food Articles' group rising to 209.2 from 206.3 for the previous month continued to drive the headline numbers.  Meanwhile, the index for 'Non-Food Articles' group declined by 2.6 percent to 193.5 (Provisional) from 198.6 (Provisional) for the previous month.

The index for fuel and power group with a weightage of 14.91percent in WPI too declined by 0.4 percent to 178.2 from 178.9 due to lower prices of  light diesel oil (7percent), aviation turbine fuel and furnace oil (6 percent each) and naphtha (4 percent).  However, the prices of petrol (7 percent) moved up. Meanwhile, the index for Manufactured Products, which carries weight of almost 65 percent in the WPI, rose by 0.5 percent to 144.3 from 143.6 for the previous month.

Although the numbers have come lower than expectation but still remains above the comfort level of the RBI. The connoisseur are of the beliefs that lower than expected numbers would cast no impact on World's most aggressive Central bank's anti-inflationary stance during its next mid-quarterly policy review on July 31. RBI, like previous Mid-Quarterly policy review, this time around also is expected to maintain its status Quo on key policy rates.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,239.80, up  by 12.55 points or 0.24% after trading as high as 5,246.85 and as low as 5,209.20. There were 31 stocks advancing against 18 declines while one stock remained unchanged on the index.

The major gainers on the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.90%, DR Reddy by 2.45%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.39%, Axis Bank up by 1.89%, and Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 1.57%.  While Tata Steel down by 3.18%, Jindal Steel down by 2.82%, Infosys down by 2.07%, TCS down by 1.61%, GAIL down by 1.40% were major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were mostly trading in the green; Hang Seng index up by 0.14%, Nikkei 225 added 0.05%, Kospi Composite Index rose 0.27%, Jakarta Composite gained 0.96% and KLSE Composite rose 0.47%. On the flip side, Strait Times lost 0.03%, Taiwan Weighted slid 0.20% and Shanghai Composite plunged 1.74%.

European markets got off to cautious start, FTSE 100 declined by 0.26%, DAX was trading lower by 0.17% and CAC 40 slid 0.32%.