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Local equity benchmarks erased all the losses to turn positive in afternoon session, both Sensex and Nifty were trading above 52,900 and 15,800 marks, respectively. Buying in frontline stocks such as Bajaj Finserv, Indusind Bank and HDFC were aiding sentiment, while selling in Titan Company, Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Industries kept the gains in the markets in check. Sentiments got a boost as government brought Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) under the Finance Ministry in order to better control public sector enterprises as it looks to privatize them. Earlier, the DPE came under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises. It monitors the performance of PSUs, dividend, capex performance, possibility of buyback of shares, and pay packages of the staff, among others. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget 2021-22 had announced a big-ticket privatisation agenda, including privatisation of two public sector banks and one general insurance company. However, upside remain capped as traders were cautious as government was set to announce a union cabinet reshuffle, expanding the council of ministers.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower as investors braced for minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting which should underline a hawkish turn in U.S. monetary policy. Back home, BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52950.66, up by 89.48 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 52751.76 and 53006.00. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.20%, while Small cap index was up by 0.14%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.98%, Capital Goods up by 0.56%, Basic Materials up by 0.38%, Telecom up by 0.35% and FMCG was up by 0.35%, while Oil & Gas down by 1.10%, Consumer Durables down by 0.96%, Energy down by 0.89%, Utilities down by 0.49% and Power was down by 0.42% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 2.09%, Indusind Bank up by 1.13%, HDFC up by 0.98%, Sun Pharma up by 0.68% and Tata Steel was up by 0.64%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 2.02%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.03%, Reliance Industries down by 0.77%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.71% and Maruti Suzuki was down by 0.67% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid the falling number of COVID-19 cases in the country, credit rating agency ICRA in its report said that domestic air passenger traffic was back to the growth trajectory in June with around three million passengers flying on local routes in the previous month as against around two million in May. Though there is some recovery observed in June, stress on demand continues, driven largely by the second wave of the pandemic, limiting travel to only necessary travel. On a sequential basis, domestic passenger traffic was up 41-42 per cent in June over May. However, the domestic passenger volume rose 51 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

June 2020 was the full month of operations after domestic commercial flights were recommenced on May 25 following a nearly two-month ban amid the nationwide lockdown in late-March last year. It has now permitted increasing the capacity to 65 per cent with effect from July 5 and which will remain applicable up to July 31. As per the report, for June 2021, domestic passenger traffic stood at around 29-30 lakh, implying a sequential growth of around 41-42 per cent as compared with around 19.8 lakh in May 2021. The airlines' capacity deployment in May, which was reduced to 50 per cent from 80 per cent earlier following a government order, was around 46 per cent higher at around 31,700 departures, than 21,696 departures in June 2020. It added that on a sequential basis, the number of departures in June were higher by around 14-15 per cent, as coronavirus infections demonstrated a downward trajectory.

According to ICRA, the government's recent announcement of a scheme providing financial support in the form of working capital/personal loans to around 10,700 recognised regional-level tourist guides is expected to provide the much-needed liquidity support to tourism and travel stakeholders (TTS). This, in turn, is expected to boost the overall travel and tourism sector, of which aviation remains a key beneficiary. Under the scheme, TTS will be eligible to get a loan of up to Rs 10 lakh each, while tourist guides can avail loans of up to Rs 1 lakh each. Additionally, to provide an impetus to the tourism industry, the finance ministry announced a scheme to issue one-month tourist visas free of charge to first five lakh customers. Validity of this is until March 31, 2022, or issuance of five lakh tourist visas, whichever is earlier.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15840.35, up by 22.10 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 15779.70 and 15850.95. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finserv up by 2.28%, Shree Cement up by 1.14%, Indusind Bank up by 1.04%, UPL up by 0.95% and Divi's Lab was up by 0.84%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.47%, Titan Company down by 1.97%, Grasim Industries down by 1.30%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.10% and Tata Consumer Products was down by 1.08% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly lower; KOSPI fell 19.87 points or 0.6% to 3,285.34, Straits Times trembled 52.35 points or 1.64% to 3,138.24, Jakarta Composite lost 13.29 points or 0.22% to 6,033.82, Nikkei 225 slipped 276.26 points or 0.96% to 28,366.95, Taiwan Weighted dropped 62.38 points or 0.35% to 17,850.69 and Hang Seng was down by 258.69 points or 0.92% to 27,814.17. On the other hand, Shanghai Composite was up by 24.74 points or 0.7% to 3,555.00.

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