Benchmarks pare losses; trade marginally in green

Indian equity benchmarks pared losses and started to trade in green hovering near neutral line in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counters. Investors had maintained cautious approach after the rupee tumbled to a seven-week low against the US dollar amid ongoing geopolitical tensions in Iraq, and as a sharp rise in India’s wholesale price index-based inflation in May, which weighed on sentiment. Traders were seen piling up positions in TECK, India Infrastructure Index and IT while selling was witnessed in Realty, Metal and Auto sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Cairn India was trading in green after the company received environmental clearance for raising crude oil production from Rajasthan block to 200,000 barrels per day. Pennar Industries was trading in green after the company and its subsidiaries Pennar Engineered Building Systems & Pennar Enviro bagged orders worth Rs 105 crore. Puravankara Projects was trading firm after the south-based real estate company launched theme based villa project on Bannerghatta road in Bengaluru called ‘The Sound of Water’. Ricoh India was locked at lower circuit limit as its delisting offer has failed.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading on a mixed note, while the European markets traded on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 7,500 and 25,100 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1708:1108 while 121 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25192.43, up by 1.95 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 25251.79 and 25104.50. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.62%, while Small cap index up by 1.22%.   

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were TECK up by 0.77%, India Infrastructure Index up by 0.65%, IT up by 0.64%, Oil & Gas up by 0.55% and Consumer Durables up by 0.43% while, Realty down by 0.72%, Metal down by 0.56%, Auto down by 0.16%, HealthCare down by 0.13% and FMCG down by 0.06% were the losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were Gail India up by 2.19%, Axis Bank up by 2.12%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.52%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.35% and Coal India up 1.27%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.42%, Hindalco Industries down by 1.89%, Tata Steel down by 1.33%, Tata Power down by 1.04% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.02% were the top losers.   

Meanwhile, in order to ensure sound growth and orderly development of Indian pension market, pension funds regulator PFRDA has introduced new set of draft regulations for intermediary institutions. PFRDA has notified four regulations to govern and regulate the pension industry under the New Pension System (NPS). These norms deal with regulation for custodians, trustee bank, enquiry investigation appeal and adjudication and regulation for centralised record keeping agencies.

PFRDA has stated that the four norms would ensure an effective and credible use of inspection, surveillance and enforcement powers, investigation and implementation of an efficient compliance programme in tune with the spirit of PFRDA Act. Further, the pension fund regulator will also explore market-based solutions under the NPS based on contributory system for securing and protecting the old-age pension for citizens of the country. The watchdog has invited public comments on the draft regulations by July 15.

Pension funds regulator PFRDA has been taking various measure to develop Indian pension market as nearly 26 crore of the 32 crore of the country’s working population is working in unorganized/informal sector. Presently, these workers are not taking benefits of pension system. Meanwhile, PFRDA has set target to increase the current number of subscribers under new pension scheme from 68.48 lakh to cross 1.50 crore by FY15. It also wants to increase the size of the corpus, which is currently at about Rs.56,000 crore, to cross the mark of Rs.1,50,000 crore by the end of this fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7537.55, up by 4.00 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 7553.50 and 7509.25. There were 29 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining while 1 sttock remained unchanged on the index.   

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Technologies up by 3.26%, Gail India up by 2.26%, Asian Paint up by 2.25%, Axis Bank up by 1.99% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Hindalco Industries down by 2.08%, NMDC down by 2.01%, M&M down by 1.92%, Jindal Steel down by 1.91% and DLF down by 1.85% were the top losers.    

Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng down by 0.42%, Straits Times down by 0.47%, and Shanghai Composite plunged 0.92%. While, Jakarta Stock Index up by 0.19%, Nikkei 225 added 0.29% and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.41%.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 gained 0.51%, Germany’s DAX added 0.82% and UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 0.20%.