Indian equity benchmarks maintained their trade in green terrain during late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty trading with notable gains, despite negative cues from other Asian markets. Traders were positive, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ambitious Rs 100 lakh crore holistic infrastructure development program 'Gatishakti', which is aimed at boosting employment opportunities and productivity of industries. Besides, leading stock exchange NSE, which helped transform the country's deep-rooted savings tradition into equity culture, has witnessed over 50 lakh new investor registrations in the current fiscal.
On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, even after Japan's gross domestic product expanded an annualized 1.3 percent on year in the second quarter of 2021, the Cabinet Office said in Monday's preliminary report. That beat forecasts for an increase of 0.7 percent following the 3.9 percent contraction in the first quarter.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 55600.37, up by 163.08 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 55281.02 and 55680.75. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.
The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.19%, while Small cap index was down by 0.50%.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 1.62%, Oil & Gas up by 0.78%, Metal up by 0.51%, FMCG up by 0.36% and Realty up by 0.02%, while Power down by 0.78%, Utilities down by 0.58%, Consumer Durables down by 0.57%, Capital Goods down by 0.56% and Telecom down by 0.45% were the top losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.38%, Reliance Industries up by 2.13%, Tata Steel up by 1.83%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.63% and Bajaj Finserv up by 1.58%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.71%, Power Grid down by 1.38%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.10%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.06% and Ultratech Cement down by 1.04% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, country's aviation regulator -- the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said that around 50.07 lakh domestic passengers travelled by air in July, 61 per cent higher than the 31.13 lakh who travelled in June. The sudden drop in domestic air traffic in May was due to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that had badly hit the country and its aviation sector. As per data, 21.15 lakh people and 57.25 lakh had travelled within the country by air in May and April, respectively.
According to the data by the DGCA, IndiGo carried 29.32 lakh passengers in July, a 58.6 per cent share of the domestic market, SpiceJet flew 4.56 lakh passengers, accounting for a 9.1 per cent share of the market. Air India, Go First (previously known as GoAir), Vistara and AirAsia India carried 6.7 lakh, 3.42 lakh, 4.07 lakh and 1.65 lakh passengers, respectively, in July. The occupancy rate or the load factor of the six major Indian airlines was between 53.6 per cent and 74.6 per cent in July. The occupancy rate for SpiceJet was 74.6 per cent in July, the DGCA noted. The occupancy rates for IndiGo, Vistara, Go First, Air India and AirAsia India were 66.2 per cent, 69.2 per cent, 67.1 per cent, 64.3 per cent and 53.6 per cent, respectively.
The aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries in view of the pandemic. India resumed domestic passenger flights on May 25 last year after a gap of two months due to coronavirus. Indian airlines are allowed to operate a maximum of 72.5 per cent of their pre-pandemic domestic flights. The DGCA data mentioned that in July 2021, IndiGo had the best on-time performance of 97.3 per cent at four metro airports -- Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. AirAsia India and Vistara were at the second and third positions at these four airports in July with 96.8 per cent and 95.1 per cent on-time performance respectively.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16565.05, up by 35.95 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 16480.75 and 16585.45. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.
The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.41%, Reliance Industries up by 2.33%, BPCL up by 1.87%, Tata Steel up by 1.80% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.56%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.66%, Shree Cement down by 1.62%, Power Grid down by 1.57%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.20% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.14% were the top losers.
Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 471.29 points or 1.68% to 27,505.86, Hang Seng decreased 196.21 points or 0.74% to 26,195.41, Taiwan Weighted dropped 111.35 points or 0.66% to 16,870.76, Jakarta Composite lost 62.85 points or 1.02% to 6,076.64 and Straits Times trembled 10.98 points or 0.35% to 3,154.51. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite gained 12.84 points or 0.37% to 3,529.14.