Markets trade steady after coming off day’s high; Nifty remains above 8, 800 mark

Local equity markets, after coming off from day’s high, continued to trade steady on prevailing bullish sentiment across globe after the European Central Bank (ECB) announced larger than expected measures to stimulate the region’s sagging economy, which in turned bolstered the appeal of all the emerging market assets, including ours. Meanwhile, sustained buying activities after Finance minister assured of continued reforms also buoyed the sentiment at home front. Off day’s high, both Sensex and Nifty were trading higher above psychologically crucial 29,200 and 8,800 levels respectively, with gains over half a percent. On the flip side, session remains daunting for broader indices, which were trading with losses in the range of 0.15%-0.60%.

Gains of local equity markets were led by stocks from Capital Goods, Auto and Realty counters, which were the prominent gainers of the session. On the flip side, some drubbing was witnessed by stocks from Information Technology and Consumer Durable counters were acting spoil sports. The overall market breadth on BSE were in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1702:972; while 101 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29217.66, up by 211.64 points or 0.73% after trading in a range of 29165.56 and 29408.73. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.16%, while Small cap index down by 0.57%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.25%, Auto up by 1.18%, Realty up by 1.02%, INFRA up by 1.01% and Bankex up by 0.84% while, IT down by 0.40%, Consumer Durables down by 0.34% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.62%, Tata Power up by 2.89%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.74%, Tata Motors up by 2.38% and HDFC Bank up by 2.34%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 1.78%, BHEL down by 0.95%, Infosys down by 0.81%, Coal India down by 0.63% and TCS down by 0.46% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, a high level panel has suggested that government's food subsidy bill can come down by over Rs 30,000 crore a year by reducing coverage of beneficiaries to 40 percent under the food law and outsourcing major work of Food Corporation of India (FCI)  to state governments and private players. The eight member panel, headed by Shanta Kumar, has submitted its report on restructuring FCI to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The panel has recommended direct cash transfer of Rs 3,000 per person a year as food subsidy and Rs 7,000 per hectare as farm input subsidy besides revising minimum support price (MSP) policy with more focus on pulses and oilseeds. It also suggested revising the National Food Security Act, which the UPA government had rolled out in 2013 as the coverage of beneficiaries is higher and not targeted well.

Further, the panel has suggested giving cash transfer in 52 cities having 1 million or more population in two years and also asked the government to give deficit states the option of either supplying grain or cash transfer. The committee is of the view that lowering the coverage of beneficiaries under the food law to 40 percent, from 67 percent, to cover more BPL families and increase the quantity of foodgrains supply to 7 kg per person from the existing 5 kg.

On restructuring the FCI, the panel suggested that despite FCI is in operation for last 50 years, only 6% of the nine crore farmers are getting the MSP and most poor people are not receiving subsidised grain under PDS due to leakages of upto 40-60 percent. Therefore, there is need to restructure the corporation. Finance Ministry had allocated Rs 1.15 lakh crore for food subsidy this year, of which Rs 92,000 crore is for FCI.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8812.90, up by 51.50 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 8795.40 and 8866.40. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.69%, DLF up by 2.96%, Cairn India up by 2.89%, Tata Power up by 2.82% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.71%. On the flip side, PNB down by 1.97%, GAIL India down by 1.86%, HCL Tech. down by 1.43%, ACC down by 1.42% and BHEL down by 1.34% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading higher; with Shanghai Composite trading higher by 0.9 points or 0.03% to 3,344.24;  KOSPI Index trading higher by 15.27 points or 0.79% to 1,936.09; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI trading higher by 20.75 points or 1.16% to 1,802.50;  Straits Times trading higher by 45.24 points or 1.34% to 3,415.53;  Jakarta Composite trading higher by 66.35 points or 1.26% to 5,319.53;  Taiwan Weighted trading higher by 101.43 points or 1.08% to 9,470.94; Nikkei 225 trading higher by 182.73 points or 1.05% to 17,511.75 and   Hang Seng trading higher by 279.11 points or 1.14% to 24,801.74.