Markets trade flat in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks pared all early gains and were trading flat in late afternoon session as traders turned cautious ahead of RBI's monetary policy review on Tuesday. Fresh selling emerged in oil and gas, metal, realty and metal stocks dragged down the major indices, though markets remained marginally in green as consumer durables, healthcare and IT continued to trade higher and provided support to domestic benchmarks. Further, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley statement that the government is committed to take more reforms measures going forward to take India back to its potential economic growth rate of 8% also supported the markets sentiments. Stocks of paints and automobile companies were trading higher due to the fall in global crude oil prices. Among blue chip stocks, Hero MotoCorp was top gainer up by around 3.27%, while ONGC was top loser trading down by around 2.66%.

Shares of Hero MotoCorp were up over 2% at Rs 3,214 after the company announced the launch of its six best selling bikes in the South American country of Colombia. Maharaja Shree Umaid Mills has locked in upper circuit of 20% at Rs 119, after the company said that the delisting offer made by its promoters will begin on December 19 and will close on December 26.

On global front, most of the Asian markets were trading mixed with Nikkei 225 up by 0.75% and Hang Seng down 2.58%. European markets also made negative opening. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 8,500 and 28,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,786 stocks traded, 1,231 stocks advanced, while 1,474 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28707.20, up by 13.21 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 28652.77 and 28809.64. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green and red; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.44%, while Small cap index down by 0.14%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 4.01%, IT up by 0.99%, FMCG up by 0.96%, Auto up by 0.75% and TECK up by 0.74%. On the other hand, Oil & Gas down by 1.60%, Metal down by 1.54%, Power down by 1.48%, Realty down by 1.10% and PSU down by 0.91% were the losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 3.27%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.83%, Wipro up by 2.54%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.45% and Cipla up by 2.14%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.66%, BHEL down by 2.42%, Tata Power down by 2.26%, Sesa Sterlite down by 2.03% and Hindalco down by 1.96% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, The 74 coal mines out of 204 quashed mines by Supreme Court will not require any green clearances, the government stated. The government plans to auction 74 coal mines, having potential produce 210 million tonnes of coal, to specific end-users in the first phase of bidding on February 11. The auction will be for the private sector, while state-owned companies will get mines via allotment. Among 74 blocks, 42 blocks are already into production and another 32 which are ready for production.

Highlighting that land acquisition and environment clearances are not an issue for these blocks, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup has asserted that the clearances for these 74 blocks that have been given in the past shall pass on to the new allotees. The Ministry of Environment and Forests have agreed that there would not be any requirement for fresh clearances and is working out a formulation, Coal Secretary added.

The e-auction of coal blocks will have a two-stage tender process of technical and financial bids and the number of mines a company can bid will be capped to avoid monopoly.

Indian domestic coal demand is around 35 percent higher than domestic supply. The government aimed to double the domestic coal production to 1 billion tonnes in the next five years. The government had already cleared that it will soon come out with a clear-cut strategy paper aimed at doubling coal production during next five years.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8585.25, down by 3.00 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 8577.10 and 8623.00. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 5.52%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.20%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.91%, Indusind Bank up by 2.54% and Wipro up by 2.43%. On the flip side, NMDC down by 3.47%, ONGC down by 2.71%, Jindal Steel & Power down by 2.67%, BHEL down by 2.63% and Tata Power down by 2.31% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in red, Jakarta Composite up by 12.35 points or 0.24% to 5,162.24, Nikkei 225 up by 130.25 points or 0.75% to 17,590.10. While, Hang Seng down 620 points or 2.58% to 23,367.45, Taiwan Weighted down 69.44 points or 0.76% to 9,117.71, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI down 45.05 points or 2.47% to 1,775.84, Straits Times down 34.65 points or 1.03% to 3,315.85, KOSPI Index down 15.56 points or 0.79% to 1,965.22 and Shanghai Composite down 2.68 points or 0.1% to 2,680.16

Europian Markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 down 57.8 points or 0.86% to 6,664.82, France’s CAC down 30.68 points or 0.7% to 4,359.50 and Germany’s DAX down 18.64 points or 0.19% to 9,962.21