Strong Market Breadth

The stock market came off days low and hit fresh intraday high in morning trade. At 10:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 139.79 points or 0.40% at 35,043. The Nifty 50 index was up 45.80 points or 0.43% at 10,638.95. The Sensex regained the psychologically important 35,000 mark in morning trade.

Trading was volatile as investors were indecisive ahead of the central banks policy decision later today. The Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) began the second bi-monthly monetary policy meeting on Monday, 4 June 2018. The resolution of the MPC will be unveiled at 14:30 IST today, 6 June 2018.

The Sensex rose 176.16 points, or 0.50% at the days high of 35,079.37 in morning trade. The index fell 6.84 points, or 0.02% at the days low of 34,896.37 in early trade. The Nifty rose 53.95 points, or 0.51% at the days high of 10,647.10 in morning trade. The index fell 5.65 points, or 0.05% at the days low of 10,587.50 in early trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.66%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.95%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned strong. On BSE, 1403 shares rose and 744 shares fell. A total of 82 shares were unchanged.

Metal shares were in demand. Hindustan Zinc (up 2.76%), Hindustan Copper (up 1.70%), National Aluminium Company (up 1.45%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 1.40%), Steel Authority of India (up 0.73%), JSW Steel (up 0.67%), Hindalco Industries (up 0.56%) and Tata Steel (up 0.18%), edged higher. Vedanta was down 0.10%.

State-run NMDC was up 0.49%. The companys production & sales of iron ore on a provisional basis upto May 2018 was 4.53 million tonnes. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 5 June 2018.

Most FMCG shares rose. Nestle India (up 2.19%), Marico (up 2.18%), Godrej Consumer Products (up 1.33%), Britannia Industries (up 0.88%), GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (up 0.75%), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care (up 0.67%), Dabur India (up 0.50%), Colgate Palmolive (India) (up 0.44%) and Hindustan Unilever (up 0.16%), edged higher. Tata Global Beverages (down 0.1%), Jyothy Laboratories (down 0.22%) and Bajaj Corp (down 0.34%), edged lower.

Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed as investors digested trade-related developments and the mixed close on Wall Street. Markets in South Korea were closed on Wednesday.

Media reports suggested that China would buy nearly $70 billion worth of US agriculture and energy products if the Trump administration steps back from tariffs. The US-China talks focused on reducing the United States $375.20 billion trade deficit with China by facilitating the supply of agricultural and energy products to meet Chinas growing consumption needs.

In US, the Nasdaq Composite Index registered its second record close in a row Tuesday on the back of a rally in the shares of technology and internet giants. However, the Dow lagged as the stocks of slumping financials and consumer-staples weighed on the blue-chip gauge.

On the data front, the Markit services purchasing managers index for the US in May rose to 56.8 from 54.6. The Institute for Supply Management services index rose to 58.6 in May from 56.8, while a reading of job openings rose to a fresh record in April, reaching 6.7 million after 6.63 million in March.