The key equity indices traded near the day's high with decent gains in the early afternoon trade. The Nifty hovered above the 15,300 level. FMCG shares snapped their 6-day losing streak. Financial services and IT stocks also advanced while metal, oil & gas and realty shares declined. At 12:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 292.01 points or 0.57% to 51,652.43. The Nifty 50 index gained 71.55 points or 0.47% to 15,365.05. The broader market underperformed the benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 1.05% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index lost 1.98%. Sellers outnumbered buyers. On the BSE, 787 shares rose and 2,451 shares fell. A total of 165 shares were unchanged.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 0.38% to 22.8450. The Nifty 30 June 2022 futures were trading at 15,364, at a discount of 1.05 points as compared with the spot at 15,365.05.

The Nifty option chain for 30 June 2022 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 29 lakh contracts at the 16,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 38.5 lakh contracts was seen at 15,500 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty FMCG index rose 1.98% to 36,938.30. The index lost 3.14% in the past six trading sessions.

Among the components of the Nifty FMCG index, Godrej Consumer Products (up 4.36%), Hindustan Unilever (up 3.87%), Dabur India (up 2.41%), United Breweries (up 2.37%) and Radico Khaitan (up 2.25%) were the top gainers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Aurobindo Pharma was down 1.20%. The drug maker on Saturday announced that its board has approved acquisition of 51% stake in Hyderabad-based GLS Pharma for a cash consideration of Rs 28.05 crore. Aurobindo Pharma said that the investment is undertaken to expand the foothold of the company in oncology business in the domestic market and for inorganic addition to capacity and revenues in oncology business.

Engineers India fell 1.22%. The company said that it had been entrusted by its clients for three separate projects across the diversified sectors of specialized chemicals, sunrise and infrastructure. The three projects involve consulting services for EPCM services for MIBK, MIBC, and offsite & utilities projects; RBI's greenfield data center at Infovalley-II, EMC Park, Khurda (Bhubaneswar), Odisha; and pre-award activities for lignite to methanol project.

Rama Steel rose 1.53%. The board of Rama Steel Tubes is scheduled to meet on 5 July 2022, to consider the proposal for sub-division of company's equity shares having face value of Rs 5 each. Further, the board will also consider the proposal for acquisition of majority stake in some of the companies and matter related thereto.

Paisalo Digital was up 0.72%. The board of the NBFC fixed 1 July 2022 as the record date for the proposed 10-for-1 stock split. The board on 17 June 2022 approved splitting each share of face value of Rs 10 each into ten equity shares of face value Re 1 each (10-for-1).

Economy:

India's domestic coal production continues to witness an increasing trend in the current financial year as well, following a record-breaking coal production of 777 Million Ton (MT) in 2021-22. The total domestic coal production in 2022-23, as on 31st May, 2022 is 137.85 MT, which is 28.6% more as compared to the production of 104.83 MT in the same period of last year. This trend is being maintained in June, 2022 also. The coal production by Coal India Ltd (CIL) is 28% more than the production in the same period of the previous year (as on16th June, 2022). Domestic coal production target for the current financial year is 911 MT which is 17.2% more than the previous year.