Benchmarks reverse gears; slip into negative territory

Reversing gears, Indian equity markets have now slipped into negative territory in absence of any supportive triggers which could take the markets higher, and also due to profit booking in frontline line blue-chip stocks. The Sentiments turned cautious on weak monsoon forecast and depreciating rupee against dollar. According to IMD, the probability of a deficient monsoon is 33% and the probability of below-normal monsoon is 35%. Effectively, there is a 68% probability of a weak monsoon.  Also, there was some cautiousness in the market after a farmer’s suicide at Jantar Mantar, a stone’s throw away from Parliament, queering the pitch for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s land acquisition Bill. However, losses remained capped as some support came with the government offering relief under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) to MAT-hit foreign investors and a firming trend at other Asian markets. Off day’s low, both Sensex and Nifty were holding above crucial 27,750 and 8,400 levels respectively. Meanwhile, the session turned productive for broader indices, which outperforming larger counterparts were trading with gains in the range of 0.40-0.20%.

On global front, Asian stocks mostly advanced on Thursday, with Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai bourses flirting with multi-year highs, despite a private survey showing China's manufacturing activity at a one-year low. Further, Wall Street had ended firmer on Wednesday as Visa's potential expansion into China and upbeat US housing data helped investors look beyond a mixed bag of quarterly earnings. Back home, Indian rupee fell by 16 paise at 62.98 against the US dollar in early trade due to appreciation of the Greenback overseas on strong American housing sales data.

Back on street, stocks from Metal, Realty and FMCG counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from Oil & Gas, information technology (IT) and Capital Goods counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, shares of Everest Industries surged after reporting an over three-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 10.07 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2015 (Q4), on the back of strong operational performance. Furthermore, Biocon rose after the company filed a prospectus with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of its research arm, Syngene.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2252 stocks traded, 1327 stocks advanced, while 854 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27768.14, down by 121.99 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 27768.10 and 28087.78. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.44%, while Small cap index gained 0.21%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.02%, Realty up by 0.28%, FMCG up by 0.23% and Infrastructure up by 0.18%, while IT down by 0.47%, Oil & Gas down by 0.40%, Capital Goods down by 0.37%, Bankex down by 0.30% and TECK down by 0.29% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.52%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.01%, Coal India up by 0.92%, Tata Power up by 0.57% and Cipla up by 0.36%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.11%, Wipro down by 1.44%, Sun Pharma down by 1.27%, SBI down by 1.13% and NTPC down by 1.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, coming strongly in favour of the controversial Land Bill, the industry body, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has said that the amended Land Bill introduced in Parliament will create millions of jobs, meet the aspirations of farmers, and help spur growth in the economy. It added that the Land Bill is expected to benefit millions of rural migrants and help the country urbanise.

The apex industry body said that the new Land Bill has been designed to bring out the best of industrial corridors. It has been proposed that the industrial corridors should be built in such a way that they run within a narrow distance with various highways, thereby giving a fillip to the development of the entire rural area in its vicinity - through employment opportunities and enhanced land value.

CII also said that it supports the government’s move to maintain the compensation package at 4 times the market value in rural areas and 2 times in urban areas will go a long way in ensuring that the land owners and farmers are adequately compensated, as such land owners and farmers are important stakeholders in the developmental process.

CII President Sumit Mazumder expressing industry’s support for the pro-farmer pro-growth Land Bill said that “The land acquisition ordinance could not have come at a more opportune time when developmental infrastructure and industrial projects worth crores of rupees are delayed due to hurdles in land acquisition. This deprives millions of landless people of job opportunities and forces them to migrate to urban slums to look for livelihood.”

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8407.95, down by 21.75 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 8406.60 and 8504.95. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 3.67%, Tata Steel up by 3.49%, Asian Paints up by 1.15%, HCL Tech up by 1.14% and Zee Entertainment up by 1.12%. On the flip side, Cairn India down by 2.40%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.00%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.81%, Wipro down by 1.55% and Bank of Baroda down by 1.36% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; Jakarta Composite increased 0.1%, Shanghai Composite rose 0.34%, Straits Times advanced 0.32%, KOSPI Index surged 1.23%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.27%, Hang Seng added 0.56% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 2.01%. On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.19%.