Benchmarks trade flat in late afternoon session

Indian equity bourses continued to trade flat with negative bias in the late afternoon session ahead of November month F&O expiry due today. Though most of the sectoral indices were trading in green, selling witnessed in consumer durables and capital goods stocks restrained the domestic equity benchmarks in the negative territory. Investors also opted to remain on the sidelines ahead of the release of July-September economic growth data on Friday and OPEC’s crucial meet scheduled today. However, losses remained capped as investors were seen piling up positions in power, IT and PSU stocks. Global credit rating agency Moody's statement that FDI inflows into the country will continue in the coming quarters of fiscal 2015 and beyond also provided some strength to local benchmarks. Among blue chip stocks, Hindalco was the top gainer up by around 3.55%, while Bharti Airtel was top loser trading down by around 1.61%. Buying continued in the broader markets with both the mid and small cap indices trading up by over 0.50%.

Shares of Kopran has rallied around 8% to Rs 61.05 after the company said it has allotted 2.05 million equity shares and 2.15 million warrants, worth of Rs 27.72 crore, to Oricon Properties Private , a promoter group company. On the flip side, Era Infra Engineering was locked at 5% lower circuit at Rs 6.25 after IFCI sold 14.25 lakh shares of the company at Rs 6.61 per share in a bulk deal.

On global front, most of the Asian markets were trading mixed with Shanghai Composite up by 1% and Nikkei 225 down 0.78%. Meanwhile, European markets also made mixed opening.  Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 8,400 and 28,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,898 stocks traded, 1,466 stocks advanced, while 1,304 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28372.71, down by 13.48 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 28307.58 and 28432.45. 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 0.61%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.71%, IT up by 0.63%, PSU up by 0.49%, Realty up by 0.49% and TECK up by 0.37%. While, Consumer Durables down by 0.79%, Capital Goods down by 0.52% and FMCG down by 0.08% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 3.55%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.91%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.75%, BHEL up by 1.42% and Infosys up by 1.24%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.61%, Sesa Sterlite down by 1.10%, Tata Motors down by 1.05%, HDFC down by 1.04% and ITC down by 1.02% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government is considering amendment to various labour laws in order to bring them in tune with better enforcement of labour laws, streamlining inspection mechanism, more coverage of labour rights and with emerging needs of the economy which include facilitating investments. Union minister for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya has stated that the Ministry is actively pondering amendments in the Child Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1986, Factories Act 1948, Mines Act 1952, Minimum Wages Act 1948, the Apprenticeship Act 1961 and Labour Laws Act 1988.

Bandaru Dattatreya stressed that proposal to amend the various labour laws is formulated on the basis of consultations held with union ministries, state governments, employers' and employees organizations.

Giving details of amendment in labour laws, Labour and Employment Minister asserted that amendment in the Child Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1986 proposes linking the definition of child under this Act to Right to Education Act 2009, complete prohibition of employment of children below 14 years, prohibition of working of adolescents in mines, explosives and other hazardous occupations under Factories Act 1948 and more strict punishment to offenders.

Further, elaborating on the proposed amendments in the Factories Act 1948, Bandaru Dattatreya emphasized that there are proposals to amend Section 66 of the Act relating to permission for employment of women for night work with adequate safeguards, amendment of sections 64 and 65 of the Act to enhance limit of overtime hours from the present limit of 50 hours per quarter to 100 hours per quarter amongst others. Another proposal is to empower the central government to make rules under the Factories Act on some important provisions.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8478.30, up by 2.55 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 8456.35 and 8489.25. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.52%, PNB up by 2.41%, Power Grid Corp up by 2.08%, BPCL up by 1.94% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.65%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 2.15%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.60%, Tata Motors down by 1.15%, HDFC down by 1.11% and Sesa Sterlite down by 1.04% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, KOSPI Index up by 1.25 points or 0.06% to 1,982.09, Jakarta Composite up by 11.05 points or 0.22% to 5,144.09, Shanghai Composite up by 26.14 points or 1% to 2,630.49 and Taiwan Weighted up by 42.92 points or 0.47% to 9,165.31. While, Nikkei 225 down 135.08 points or 0.78% to 17,248.50, Hang Seng down 107.7 points or 0.45% to 24,004.28, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI down 13.04 points or 0.71% to 1,829.13 and Straits Times down 2.67 points or 0.08% to 3,346.99.

European Markets made mixed opening. Germany’s DAX up by 9.53 points or 0.1% to 9,925.09, France’s CAC down 8.89 points or 0.2% to 4,373.42 and UK’s FTSE 100 down 8.78 points or 0.13% to 6,720.39.