Benchmarks continue to trade choppy ahead of F&O expiry; Nifty holds above 7750 mark

In the extremely choppy F&O expiry session, whereby markets continued to flip-flop between green and red zone, benchmark equity indices currently are trading flat with negative bias in absence of any positive trigger, though above its crucial 26,050 (Sensex) and 7,750 (Nifty) levels respectively. Market-participants, intentionally are keeping on the sidelines on the final F&O expiry session, to avoid further volatility of bourses, a feature which is peculiar on final F&O expiry session. Besides, absence of any supportive cues from regional counterparts also was weighing on the sentiment. Globally, Asian pacific shares were uninspired by an upbeat report on the U.S. economy, with most drifting lower Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would make further cuts to its monetary stimulus as expected.

However, some support could be lent to bourses in later part of the session as European markets have got off with upbeat start as investors combed through a batch of corporate results from blue-chips such as Sanofi, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Royal Dutch Shell. Shares in Sanofi surged 4 percent after the French drugmaker raised its full-year profit forecast, while German sportswear company Adidas sank 9 percent after saying it will scale back plans to expand in Russia.

Closer home, further downside of market was capped by stocks belonging from Oil & Gas, Metal and Public Sector Undertaking counters, while those from IT, Consumer Durables and Technology counters were the weak spells of the trade. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1100:777; while 29 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26074.84, down by 12.58 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 26034.55 and 26118.88. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.61%, while Small cap index up by 0.54%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.95%, Metal up by 0.84%, PSU up by 0.32%, INFRA up by 0.17%, Realty up by 0.17% while, IT down by 0.49%, Consumer Durables down by 0.34%, TECK down by 0.32%, Power down by 0.23%, FMCG down by 0.21% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 3.03%, Tata Steel up by 2.42%, Reliance Industries up by 1.12%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.05% and GAIL India up by 0.97%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.20%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.07%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.77%, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 0.74% and HDFC down by 0.69% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, as India has taken a tough stand at WTO, the top global trade bodies and experts have attributed this policy as a quite contrary to the promise made by the new government that it is open for business.  Last week, India has made it clear to the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it would not agree to the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) unless there is a tangible and credible evidence of movement on arriving at a permanent solution on safeguards to run food security programmes of developing nations and a package for least developed countries (LDCs).

India's stance not only puts up a roadblock on global trade, but will effectively halt any efforts to envision a larger ambition for the US-India economic relationship, said Alyssa Ayres a senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. Disagreement with TFA shows that India is not against the west countries but against itself and the world, backing away from the terms of a deal it participated in designing as recently as December. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has stated that failure to meet the July 31 deadline for TFA would mean missing an opportunity to inject much-needed growth into the global economy.

The developed countries including the US, Australia and European countries have heavily skewed in favour of trade facilitation instead of accepting the Bali package on food security programmes of developing nations. Earlier, at Bali Ministerial last December, India had agreed to the TFA, which binds members to improving border infrastructure for smoother movement of goods. The TFA is aimed at simplifying customs procedure, reducing transactions cost and increasing transparency and is being pushed by the developed countries as they seek to strengthen their sagging economies through an unrestrained global trade by way of a uniform and easy procedures at customs.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7781.85, down by 9.55 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 7768.70 and 7791.85. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 2.93%, Tata Steel up by 2.35%, BPCL up by 2.27%, Lupin up by 1.83% and Jindal Steel & Power up by 1.51%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 2.35%, Asian Paints down by 1.25%, Wipro down by 1.22%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.20% and NMDC down by 1.19% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in lower; Shanghai Composite rose 17.48 points or 0.8% to 2,198.72; Hang Seng gained by 24.81 points or 0.10% to 24,757.02 and Straits Times added 27.56 points or 0.82% to 3,381.21.On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted slid by 131.17 points or 1.39% to 9,315.85; Nikkei 225 lost 25.46 points or 0.16% to 15,620.77; Jakarta Composite shed 9.84 points or 0.19% to 5,088.80; KOSPI Index offloaded 6.49 points or 0.31% to 2,076.12 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gave up 4.44 points or 0.24% to 1,873.90.

European markets got off to an upbeat start; with UK’s FTSE 100 trading higher by 12.85 points or 0.19% to 6,786.29; France’s CAC rising by 16.79 points or 0.39% to 4,329.09 and Germany’s DAX losing by 35.52 points or 0.37% to 9,558.16