Markets trade flat with negative bias in range-bound session of trade

In the extremely range-bound session of trade, Indian equity benchmarks alternating between positive and negative territory, were trading flat with bit of negative bias as investors and foreign funds were adopting a cautious approach, ahead of December WPI data, which is scheduled to be released later in the day. Sentiment on the street weakened as the World Bank lowered its global growth forecast for 2015 and next year due to disappointing economic prospects in the euro zone, Japan and some major emerging economies that offset the benefit of lower oil prices. However, losses remained capped as RBI Deputy Governor Urjit Patel has stated that the dramatic fall in global crude prices is a big boost for India as it can bring down the country's annual oil import bill by about $50 billion. Some support also came in from reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 235 crore on January 13, 2015.

On the global front, Asian shares declined on Wednesday following a volatile session on Wall Street as investors remained edgy over the slump in oil prices. Oil fell again after the UAE energy minister said OPEC has no plans to curb production to shore up prices that have slumped almost 60 percent since June. Back home, Indian rupee strengthened by four paise to 62.10 against the dollar in early trade, extending its upward march for the sixth day on sustained selling of the American currency by exporters amid fresh overseas capital inflows.

Back on street, stocks from Auto, Capital Goods and IT counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from Metal, FMCG and Oil & Gas counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, shares of Tata Motors have gained as Jaguar Land Rover sales for December 2014 rose 7% to 42,962 units compared with December 2013 and global sales for Tata Motors increased by 8%. On the other hand, shares of cigarette makers such as ITC, VST Industries and Godfrey Philips were trading lower on reports that the government moved to amend the anti-smoking law and proposed radical changes.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2289 stocks traded, 1264 stocks advanced, while 925 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27423.04, down by 2.69 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 27351.27 and 27512.80. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.35%, while Small cap index up by 0.30%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.84%, Capital Goods up by 0.56%, IT up by 0.45%, Power up by 0.42% and Consumer Durables up by 0.41% while, Metal down by 1.88%, FMCG down by 0.70%, Oil & Gas down by 0.29% and Bankex down by 0.04% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.47%, BHEL up by 1.96%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.49%, HDFC up by 0.93% and HDFC Bank up by 0.82%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 3.79%, Hindalco down by 3.00%, ITC down by 2.85%, Tata Steel down by 2.46% and GAIL India down by 2.04% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Indirect tax collections grew by 6.49% to Rs 3.77 lakh crore during April-December period of current fiscal as compared to Rs 3.54 lakh crore during the same period of previous financial year. Indirect taxes include customs duty, central excise duty and service tax. Indirect tax amount during the April to December period accounts for around 60.6% of the target fixed for 2014-15 Budget Estimate. 

Customs duty collections grew 9.5% to Rs1.38 lakh crore as against Rs1.26 lakh crore and excise collections for April-December FY15 grew 1.69% to Rs1.20 lakh crore  as against Rs 1.18 lakh crore. For customs, the government has so far achieved 68.6% of the Budget estimate while in the case of excise duty it has achieved 58.3% of the Budget estimate.

Indirect tax collection during December was recorded Rs 49,651 crore, up 5.1% from Rs 47,235 crore collected in similar month of the last fiscal. Excise duty collection grew by 17.2% y-o-y to Rs 17,450 crore and customs duty amount increased by 5.4% to Rs 15,222 crore during December. On the other hand, the service tax collections shrunk by 5.2% y-o-y to Rs 16,979 crore in December.

Tax collection is the major source of revenue for the government. The Budget aimed to mobilise Rs 6.23 lakh crore in 2014-15, which requires a growth of 20% in indirect tax collections over 2013-14.  However, the total indirect tax collections amount for April-December was 60% of the full year budgeted estimate, indicating that  40% of the Budget estimates will have to be collected in the next three months. The government has estimated to garner Rs 13.64 lakh crore from both direct and indirect tax collections during the current fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8298.65, down by 0.75 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 8283.25 and 8326.45. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.55%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.46%, BHEL up by 2.10%, ACC up by 1.91% and Asian Paints up by 1.82%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 3.89%, Hindalco down by 3.13%, ITC down by 2.82%, Tata Steel down by 2.48% and GAIL India down by 2.13% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian equity benchmarks were trading in red; Nikkei 225 declined 1.33%, Taiwan Weighted decreased 0.46%, KOSPI Index down by 0.06%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI shed 0.32% and Straits Times was down by 0.05%. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite up by 0.01%, Shanghai Composite increased 0.36% and Hang Seng was up by 0.20%.