Choppiness persist; Nifty trades below 8450 level

Markets continue to trade choppy and the benchmarks are finding it difficult to move in either direction lacking any cues in the early noon session. There was some cautiousness in the foreign investors with the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP) of the income-tax department sending notices to foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), telling them that the hearing of MAT disputes would start soon. The investors would have to submit any additional material in this regard within the next nine days. Traders have even over looked the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement, who while addressing the 31st Annual Conference of Principal Chief Commissioners of Income Tax said that we have to bring tax rate at global level while the same time removing the exemptions and expect a growth of 14-15 percent in direct tax collections this fiscal. Back on street, there was selling in some bluechips, especially banking stocks that were keeping the markets under pressure. Though, the broader markets were outperforming the benchmarks, sectors like, FMCG, metal, capital goods and IT were dragging the markets lower. Some strength was seen in the oil & gas, auto and technology stocks.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27818.81, down by 138.69 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 27800.80 and 27903.29. There were just 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.40%, while Small cap index was higher by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.62%, INFRA up by 0.45%, Auto up by 0.38%, TECK up by 0.26%, Realty up by 0.17%, while FMCG down by 1.20%, Metal down by 1.04%, Capital Goods down by 0.35%, IT down by 0.14%, Power down by 0.11% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.84%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.08%, ONGC up by 0.74%, ICICI Bank up by 0.11% and Wipro up by 0.07%. On the flip side, ITC down by 2.48%, Coal India down by 1.80%, Vedanta down by 1.66%, HDFC down by 1.36% and BHEL down by 1.20% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Industry body, the associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) in feedback from its members on new government’s completion of an eventful one year in office, has said that India Inc. expects some major initiatives and forward movement in key sectors of road, power, coal, non-renewable energy to be essentially led by the public sector investment in the next two quarters by the NDA Government.

The chamber further said that a holistic view must be taken about the stressed assets in banks so that we are not left with large and uncontrolled non-performing assets. Once these sectors look up, the manufacturing revival will pick up towards the completion of the recovery cycle. Besides, the international commodity pricing would also hold the key.

The industry body opined that for kick starting the economic growth, domestic consumer demand has to be revived with improving the sentiment on employment opportunities. 'Consumer demand and the employment prospects are closely connected. Sectors like tourism, aviation are some of the low hanging fruits, which must be ripened and plucked. They will create a huge employment opportunities along with creating an uptick for sectors such as construction and real estate.

ASSOCHAM has already given seven out of 10 for the one-year performance of the Modi government with regard to moderating inflation, stability in foreign exchange, reforms in insurance and defence production, there are select sectors of the economy which are under stress. These include the housing, real estate, banking, telecom. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8427.95, down by 31.00 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 8414.95 and 8441.95. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.94%, Bank Of Baroda up by 2.80%, BPCL up by 2.26%, HCL Tech. up by 2.24% and Lupin up by 2.05%. On the flip side, ITC down by 2.78%, Coal India down by 1.96%, Ambuja Cement down by 1.95%, Asian Paints down by 1.86% and BHEL down by 1.37% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in green, Taiwan Weighted was up by 6.37 points or 0.07% to 9,645.17, Straits Times gained 9.83 points or 0.28% to 3,460.01, Shanghai Composite surged by116.79 points or 2.51% to 4,774.38 and Nikkei 225 gained 149.36 points or 0.74% to 20,413.77.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite declined by 23.32 points or 0.44% to 5,291.84 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI lost17.53 points or 0.98% to 1,769.97.