Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals on Tuesday

Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Tuesday. Sentiments remained up-beat on reports that foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 2,020 crore on January 23, 2015, as per provisional stock exchange data. Some support also came in with chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian’s statement that the central bank may further ease the interest rates as improvement on price front has opened the space for monetary easing. Also, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wooing US investors’ has promised a predictable tax regime. He has also flagged US concerns over trade barriers, intellectual property rights and sought consistency and simplicity in regulatory and tax regime for ease of doing business with India.

On the global front, the US markets recovered from their early lows to end modestly higher in last session, though the concerns about the political situation in Greece after the anti-austerity Syriza party emerged victorious in the parliamentary elections. The Asian markets were trading mixed at this point of time as the fall in crude oil prices weighed on resource stocks and as investors tread cautiously ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement on January 28, 2015.

Back home, on the sectoral front, capital goods, consumer durables and power witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while software, technology and metal remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1141 shares on the gaining side against 804 shares on the losing side while 72 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29399.74, up by 120.90 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 29298.59 and 29456.63. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.74%, while Small cap index up by 0.53%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.24%, Consumer Durables up by 1.53%, Power up by 1.08%, Bankex up by 0.54% and Auto up by 0.53% while, IT down by 1.08%, TECK down by 0.60%, Metal down by 0.54%, Oil & Gas down by 0.15% and PSU down by 0.05% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 2.43%, Cipla up by 2.39%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.36%, Tata Motors up by 2.34% and HDFC up by 1.54%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.75%, Infosys down by 2.33%, Hindalco down by 2.00%, Coal India down by 1.87% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.79% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, making a raft of changes to regulations, the market regulator SEBI also has relaxed de-listing guidelines and scrapped mandatory participation of 25% demat shareholders. However, tweaking of norms come with certain riders. As per the conditions laid down by SEBI, the acquirer or the investment banker will have to prove that all shareholders were contacted in the manner prescribed.

Apart from easing de-listing norms, Sebi’s board has also approved rules on issue of partly paid shares. In case of partly paid shares issued through Rights Issue, a minimum 25% of the issue price will have to be paid up-front. The balance consideration is required to be paid within 12 months, if the issue size is less than Rs 500 crore and in case the issue size is above Rs 500 crore, issuer can decide on the period of payment.

Besides, that market watchdog also has approved amendments to Issue and Listing of Debt Securities guidelines, and has enabled re-issuance of corporate debt securities, which would enable illiquid corporate bonds to be reissued and increase liquidity in the market. It has permitted enabling ‘Call & Put Options’ that will help issuer or investor to have flexibility in redemption of debt securities. Lastly, it has allotted 18 months to listed companies of regional stock exchanges to switch to nation-wide stock exchanges.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8857.05, up by 21.45 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 8825.85 and 8878.20. There were 25 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 2.67%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.28%, Tata Motors up by 2.21%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.20% and Cipla up by 1.96%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 3.04%, Infosys down by 2.48%, Ambuja Cement down by 2.34%, Cairn India down by 2.25% and Coal India down by 2.13% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 1.56 points or 0.09% to 1,798.00, KOSPI Index increased 8.12 points or 0.42% to 1,943.80, Straits Times gained 19.96 points or 0.59% to 3,418.48 and Nikkei 225 was up by 221.41 points or 1.27% to 17,689.93.

On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 190.47 points or 0.76% to 24,719.43, Shanghai Composite declined 63.51 points or 1.88% to 3,319.67, Jakarta Composite slipped 3.69 points or 0.07% to 5,256.34 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 1.91 points or 0.02% to 9,475.76.