Market opens in red but Nifty slightly above 8500; ONGC down 1%

Moneycontrol Bureau9:55 am Bonds: The New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS countries, including India, announced plans to issue green bonds in Chinese yuan to raise funds for clean energy and infrastructure projects.The bank jointly founded by the BRICS (Brazil, India, China and South Africa) and headquartered in Shanghai, plans to issue 3 billion yuan worth of five-year bonds denominated in Chinese currency on July 18.Bank of China has been mandated as the lead manager on the deal, with China Development Bank (CDB), China Construction Bank (CCB), Industrial and Commercial Bank (ICBC) of China, HSBC and Standard Chartered in the underwriting group.9:45 am Pulse: With pulses still ruling as high as Rs 200 per kg, the government today said it is taking several measures to boost domestic output and imports, besides taking action against hoarders to control rates."The central government is taking several measures to control the price rise of pulses," Agriculture Ministry said in a statement."On one hand, the government is trying to give relief to citizens by importing pulses from foreign countries or taking action against hoarders, on the other hand the government has taken several steps to increase pulses production and to incentivise pulses growing farmers," it added. Dal prices have soared up to Rs 198 per kg in the retail markets due to fall of production in last two crop years at about 17 million tonnes in view of drought.9:30 am Rating: Rating agency India Ratings affirmed the long-term issuer ratings on four state-owned banks at AAA, apart from maintaining stable outlook on them.

The agency affirmed ratings of SBI, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India and Canara Bank.

"The ratings is driven by expectations of continued strong support from the government," it said in a report. For SBI, it said the expected support from the government is backed by the bank's quasi-sovereign risk status and huge systemic importance. The government owned 60.18 percent in SBI as of March 2016.

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The market has opened in red but the Nifty has managed to hold 8500. The Sensex is down 1.70 points at 27813.48, and the Nifty is down 6.40 points at 8513.10. About 292 shares have advanced, 160 shares declined, and 27 shares are unchanged.

GAIL, Bharti Airtel,L&T, HDFC Bank and Coal India are top gainers while Bajaj Auto, Wipro, Sun Pharma, ONGC and M&M are losers in the Sensex.

The Indian rupee opened with marginal gain of 5 paise at 67 per dollar versus previous close 67.05. The yen strengthened versus the dollar. The pound slipped amid Theresa May's elevation as Britain's new prime minister.

Mohan Shenoi of Kotak Mahindra Bank said, "Global equity market rally of the last few days has slowed down. The market focus is now on Bank of England's MPC meeting with an expectation of rate cut or stimulus."

"The Bank of Japan stimulus package is also widely expected. Global currency markets are flat except yen weakness across the board. The trading range for the USD-INR is seen between 66.95-67.25/dollar for the day," he added.

Asian markets appeared to have lost some of its momentum, trading mixed at the open, after US stocks closed near the flatline but still managed to make it further into record territory.

Australia's ASX 200 was up 0.23 percent, boost by a 0.42 percent increase in the heavily-weighted financials subindex. In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 0.31 percent, while the Topix was up 0.3 percent. Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi was down 0.19 percent.

Markets have rebounded in recent sessions on the expectation of further stimulus measures in Japan and in the UK.

US stocks ticked just enough for the S&P 500 and Dow industrials to set record highs, with investors expecting upbeat earnings to keep the rally going.

Crude prices rose in early Asian trading after big losses in the previous session spurred by mounting concerns that the global glut in oil is not going away soon after the latest bearish data out of the United States.