Benchmarks slip into red; trade remain rangebound

The Indian markets are showing a choppy trade in early noon trade, coming after a long weekend. The benchmarks have slipped into red for a couple of times after a green start led by the losses in some blue chips especially from the banking sector. Traders are a bit cautious a day ahead of the RBI’s bi-monthly monetary policy review. Also, there was some concern in the markets with nearly 100 foreign funds being asked to cough up an estimated $5-6 billion for "untaxed gains" made by them in the Indian markets over the past years. These FIIs, many of whom have now converted themselves into FPIs include entities from the US and Europe as also those operating through Singapore, Hong Kong and Mauritius. Back on street, while the broader markets continue to outperform the benchmarks, the sectoral indices are giving a mixed view. Healthcare, consumer durables, FMCG and Auto were trading higher while metals, banks, IT and technology were restricting any big gains. The rupee gain was weighing on the IT and technology stocks. Rupee has appreciated considerably after the American dollar weakened overseas on disappointing jobs data.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28255.11, down by 5.03 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 28227.90 and 28367.58. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green were outperforming the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.63%, while Small cap index surged by 1.02%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.79%, FMCG up by 1.20%, Auto up by 0.83%, Oil & Gas up by 0.33%, PSU up by 0.12%, while Metal down by 0.69%, Bankex down by 0.50%, IT down by 0.46%, TECK down by 0.34%, Power down by 0.03% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma Inds up by 4.24%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.03%, Cipla up by 2.21%, Tata Motors up by 2.01% and ONGC up by 1.88%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.77%, Tata Power down by 1.48%, HDFC down by 1.41%, Wipro down by 1.27% and Reliance Industries down by 1.17% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government, which is armed with Coal Mines Special Provisions Bill, 2015, is all set to allotting mines to the state entities for commercial mining of coal. The passing of the Coal Mines Special Provisions Bill, 2015 in Parliament allows the government to continue auctioning coal blocks to private companies. However, the government has decided to assign mines to private entities only in second phase.

Overall, the centre is in the process of allotting 204 coal blocks in a transparent manner of which 67 blocks have been allotted by either auction or on a nomination basis to state entities. Till now, 29 blocks have been auctioned and another 38 allotted to the state-owned entities.

To begin with, the Coal Ministry is trying to allow commercial extraction of coal in mines which are already with state governments. Further, Coal Secretary, Anil Swarup underscored that the objective of the government was for a methodology of offering linkages in a transparent manner and auction was not the only option available to them. He further highlighted that the government had appointed SBI capital to suggest on this and a policy paper is expected be ready on this by June 30, 2015.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8583.95, down by 2.30 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 8573.75 and 8619.15. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma Inds up by 4.05%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.97%, Cipla up by 2.28%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.17% and ACC up by 2.04%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.81%, HDFC down by 1.72%, Wipro down by 1.60%, Tata Power down by 1.55% and HCL Tech. down by 1.34% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were showing mixed trend, KOSPI Index was up by 1.01 points or 0.05% to 2,046.43, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 7.95 points or 0.43% to 1,842.47 and Jakarta Composite increased by 19.71 points or 0.36% to 5,476.11.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 declined by 37.1 points or 0.19% to 19,397.98 and Straits Times was lower by 1.54 points or 0.04% to 3,452.21.