Benchmarks continue to trade firmly in green; broader indices outperform

Benchmark equity indices continued to trade firmly in green with gains of close to four tenths of a percent on persistent buying in index-heavyweights such as Reliance Industries (RIL), ICICI Bank and ITC, among others. Not far away from day’s lows, while Sensex is trading above the crucial 22,500 level, Nifty is hovering above the crucial 6,700 mark. In today’s trading session, broader indices too are contributing to the upside of the bourses amidst mostly positive global counterparts. Both Midcap and Small-cap index were trading with gains of over half a percent. On the global front, Asian share markets shuffled higher on Tuesday after promising US economic news helped Wall Street to a firmer finish, though activity was again light with Tokyo still on holiday.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading in green, with only exceptions being the stocks from Information Technology counter, which continued to its southbound journey for yet another session. On the flip side, stocks from Consumer Durable counter witnessed maximum demand, followed by Oil & Gas and Capital Goods counters. Besides Realty stocks too edged higher. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1260:1083; while 122 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22534.81, up by 89.60 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 22602.71 and 22512.23. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.57%, while Small cap index up by 0.58%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.06%, Oil and Gas up by 1.05%, Capital Goods up by 0.98% FMCG up by 0.90%, and Realty up by 0.72%. While, IT down by 0.68%, Teck down by 0.61% were the losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC and ICICI Bank were up by 1.63%, Tata Steel up by 1.47%, ONGC up by 1.37% and RIL up by 1.32%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.64% Bajaj Auto down by 0.98%, Hindalco Inds down by 1.15%, Wipro down by 0.91%, TCS down by 0.85% and Hero Motocorp down by 0.76%

Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has directed that foreign investors with ‘opaque’ structures will not be allowed to come in under the new Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) regime. The market regulator has notified that some foreign entities use complex multi-fund structures such as multi-class share vehicle (MCV) or protected cell companies (PCCs) to invest in India which can lead to possible round-tripping or money laundering activities.

SEBI further stated that the FPI applicant would need to give a declaration that they were not operating as PCCs, MCVs or any such equivalent structures.  However, an overseas FPI applicant will not be considered as opaque structure if it is firmly regulated by its home jurisdiction. Such funds will be considered for grant of registration after meeting certain conditions. Under the new regime, FPIs excluding high-risk profile entities would also be allowed to issue participatory notes.

The new Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) regime will be implemented from next month and all existing investor classes such as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), their sub-accounts and Qualified Foreign Investors (FIIs) to be counted as FPIs. New foreign investors wishing to invest in Indian markets will have to register as FPIs, which has divided the investors into three categories on their risk profiles. The Category I FPIs include lowest risk entities such as foreign governments and government related foreign investors. Category II FPIs include appropriately regulated broad based funds and regulated entities, university related endowments and pension funds etc, while Category III FPIs include all others not eligible under the first two categories.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,722.20, up by 22.85 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 6,743.45 and 6,715.90. There were 25 stocks advancing against 23 declining on the index, while 2 stocks remained unchanged.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 1.82%, IndusInd Bank up by 1.71%, DLF up by 1.65%, ITC up by 1.51% and ACC up by 1.49%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.67%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.47%, Hindalco down by 1.40%, NMDC down by 1.14% and Ambuja Cement down by 1.14% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite up by 0.17%, Straits Times up by 0.12%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.04% and Taiwan Weighted added 0.47%.