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Tracking gains in Asian other markets, domestic bourses continued to trade in fine contour on continued buying by funds and retail investors with Sensex and Nifty trading above 53,800 and 16,100 levels, respectively. Apart from blue chips, broader indices too equally participated in the rally with both mid and small cap indices trading up by over 1% each. Sentiments remained up-beat as Sanjiv Bajaj, the newly-elected president of industry body CII, said the Reserve Bank’s decision to raise benchmark interest rates and the likelihood of a good monsoon will help in containing inflation. Traders seem to have overlooked the data from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) showing that Wholesale inflation in India rose to 15.08% in April on an annual basis owing to higher fuel and energy costs. The high rate of inflation in April 2022 was primarily due to rise in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, crude petroleum & natural gas, food articles, non-food articles, food products and chemicals & chemical products etc. as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

On the global front, all Asian markets were trading firm as hopes grow for an easing of China's unprecedented regulatory crackdown on its once-freewheeling tech sector. Back home, US hopes India will reconsider its decision to ban wheat exports, with Washington encouraging countries not to restrict exports as that will exacerbate food shortages, amidst Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 53827.01, up by 853.17 points or 1.61% after trading in a range of 53176.02 and 53991.49. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.10%, while Small cap index was up by 1.50%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 5.06%, Energy up by 3.01%, Basic Materials up by 2.54%, Oil & Gas up by 2.48% and Telecom was up by 2.12%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.96%, ITC up by 3.13%, Reliance Industries up by 3.12%, ICICI Bank up by 3.02% and Maruti Suzuki was up by 2.84%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 0.74%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.17%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.14% and Power Grid was down by 0.02% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, leading industry body Tea Association of India (TAI) has flagged the issue of rising coal costs due to acute shortage which is affecting plantation activity as it is an important input for manufacturing in North Bengal. It said since the North Bengal region does not have access to supplies of natural gas, which is available in the gardens of Upper Assam, this causes the North Bengal gardens to face competitive disadvantages. It noted that the issue of minimum wages in a labour intensive industry like tea, the cost of production on account of wages is always higher compared to other less labour intensive industries. According to estimates, the cost of labour on account of wages is almost 60 per cent, which is much lower than those of other labour intensive sectors.

TAI said that the West Bengal government, employers and the employees have engaged in matters relating to the fixation of minimum wages and through various submissions made by the industry, it had urged the government to study the wage structure of the tea workers and the industry also had to fulfil separate commitments towards the workers in the form of non-cash payment like ration, housing, health and education.

Regarding climate change, the association pointed out the industry had been witnessing a sharp drop in rainfall post October each year which makes the plantations susceptible to pest infestation. It said to counter this problem, more irrigation facilities is made available to the tea industry by tapping technological advances. As the production of tea in North Bengal has grown leaps and bounds particularly from small tea growers. This raises the issue of exporting teas of North Bengal. Preliminary estimates show that only four million kilogramme of tea is exported from North Bengal and there is a need to increase this figure. Referring to the welfare schemes of the West Bengal government, TAI said that the programme of providing shelters to the workers under the 'Cha Sundari' scheme is a welcome move.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16104.80, up by 262.50 points or 1.66% after trading in a range of 15900.80 and 16153.00. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 7.33%, Coal India up by 6.14%, ONGC up by 5.05%, JSW Steel up by 4.42% and Tata Steel was up by 4.00%. On the flip side, Tata Consumer Products down by 1.84%, Cipla down by 1.74%, Sun Pharma down by 0.69%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 0.68% and Dr. Reddy's Lab was down by 0.29% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher; Hang Seng increased 550.54 points or 2.76% to 20,500.75, Nikkei 225 surged 112.70 points or 0.42% to 26,659.75, Straits Times advanced 9.67 points or 0.3% to 3,200.83, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 155.05 points or 0.98% to 16,056.09, Jakarta Composite soared 49.70 points or 0.75% to 6,647.69, Shanghai Composite gained 14.04 points or 0.46% to 3,087.79 and KOSPI was up by 23.86 points or 0.92% to 2,620.44.

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