Benchmarks trade slightly in red in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks have made a cautious start and are trading slightly in the red terrain in early deals on Wednesday as investors remained on sidelines ahead of the outcome of the US Federal Reserve's stance on interest rates at its two-day policy meet which ends today. Sentiments also remained dampened as IMF chief Christine Lagarde has said that a possible interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve could pose risks to market stability in emerging economies, including India, even if it is well managed by central banks. However, losses remained capped on the buzz in the market with government approving the release of Rs 33,000 crore in tranches to states and Union Territories as CST compensation. As part of the roll-out of proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, the CST is being phased out and has been reduced to 2 per cent, from the earlier 4 percent.

On the global front, the US markets made a mixed closing in last session and though the major averages bounced well off their worst levels of the day, the trading remained subdued ahead of the announcement of the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy decision on Wednesday. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the green at this point of time.

Back home, on the sectoral front, metal, oil and gas and capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while fast moving consumer goods, software and auto remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices, however, were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 985 shares on the gaining side against 866 shares on the losing side while 77 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28667.60, down by 68.78 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 28599.88 and 28806.97. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.31%, while Small cap index up by 0.38%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.49%, Oil & Gas up by 0.31%, Capital Goods up by 0.29%, PSU up by 0.24% and Realty up by 0.08% while, FMCG down by 0.22%, IT down by 0.20%, Auto down by 0.18%, Consumer Durables down by 0.15% and Power down by 0.14% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sesa Sterlite up by 2.25%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.89%, SBI up by 0.69%, Reliance Industries up by 0.59% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.55%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.23%, NTPC down by 1.01%, ONGC down by 0.86%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.80% and TCS down by 0.79% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, pressing upon the need for the economy to achieve higher growth trajectory, the secretary of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Amitabh Kant, called for ease of doing business, not for achieving higher ranking on this index at the global level, but for country’s own self. Notably, India's position slipped to a very low 142nd last year on the World Bank's 'Ease of Doing Business' rankings of 189 countries.

The secretary, however, highlighted that the government had taken several initiatives to improve the country's ranking on ease of doing business index, including digitizing the process of applying for industrial licenses, entrepreneurial memorandum and setting up an e-biz platform that seeks to integrate 14 services and make them available online.

Additionally, he outlined the lesser number of forms that exporters/ importers had to fill being reduced from 9 to 3, besides the move of government for increasing the initial validity period of industrial license to three years from two years, which would grant licensees with enough time to procure land and obtain the necessary clearances/approvals from authorities.

Further, he also unveiled that Centre identified around 98 parameters which it shared with the states for necessary action by May 2015 and that the coming months would see the government evaluating these states progress on the breakthrough achieved in the suggested areas.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8703.95, down by 19.35 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 8681.35 and 8747.25. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Jindal Steel & Power up by 2.39%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.38%, Sesa Sterlite up by 2.07%, BPCL up by 1.09% and Hero MotoCorp up by 0.93%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.31%, ACC down by 1.01%, ONGC down by 0.99%, Grasim Industries down by 0.95% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.95% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; KOSPI Index rose 2.99 points or 0.15% to 2,032.90, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 7.87 points or 0.44% to 1,795.74, Nikkei 225 advanced 8.29 points or 0.04% to 19,445.29, Shanghai Composite gained 30.14 points or 0.86% to 3,532.99, Taiwan Weighted surged 104.51 points or 1.1% to 9,643.95 and Hang Seng was up by 243.65 points or 1.02% to 24,145.14.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 16.4 points or 0.3% to 5,422.76 and Straits Times was down by 4.18 points or 0.12% to 3,365.77.