Benchmarks extend gains in noon deals; Nifty regains 8,100 mark

Indian equity benchmarks extended its northward journey in noon deals with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 8,100 (Nifty) and 26,750 (Sensex) levels as investors continued hunt for fundamentally strong but oversold stocks. Sentiments remained up-beat with World Bank’s report that India has figured in top five emerging economies for highest investment commitments despite a drop in investment commitments of USD 6.2 billion last year. According to World Bank, the five sectors in which India has still topped are private sector, infrastructure sectors energy, transport and water. Meanwhile, sugar stocks remained on buyers’ radar on talks that the food ministry has decided to provide an interest-free loan worth Rs 6,000 crore to the sugar companies.

On the global front, European markets have made a weak start with CAC, DAX and FTSE all trading with a cut of around half a percent. Asian stocks were trading mixed at this point of time, with Chinese markets leading losses after U.S. index provider MSCI said it would put on hold the inclusion of mainland-listed A-shares in its emerging market index. Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too equally participated in the rally. None of the sectoral indices were trading in the red, while capital goods and realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade. Auto, banking, power, oil and gas, healthcare and consumer durables too were trading significantly. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,605 shares on the gaining side against 733 shares on the losing side while 89 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26770.55, up by 289.30 points or 1.09% after trading in a range of 26493.29 and 26781.81. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.14%, while Small cap index up by 1.19%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.16%, Realty up by 1.88%, Auto up by 1.47%, Bankex up by 1.36%, Power up by 1.28%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.30%, Tata Power up by 2.56%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.53%, Reliance Industries up by 2.33% and ICICI Bank up by 2.16%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.28%, Vedanta down by 0.14% and GAIL India down by 0.06% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has clarified that only air-conditioned or air-heated restaurants are required to pay service tax. Reiterating that consumers will not be charged any service tax for eating in non-air conditioned restaurants while those who eat in an AC restaurant will have to pay the service tax on only 40 per cent of the total amount.

A finance Ministry statement said that restaurants, eating-joints or messes, which do not have the facility of air-conditioning or central-heating in any part of the establishment are exempt from service tax. At present, service tax is chargeable on services provided by restaurants, eating-joints or messes which have the facility of air-conditioning or central air-heating in any part of the establishment at any time during the year in relation to serving of food or beverages.

The statement further added that in respect to such air-conditioned or air-heated restaurants which are required to pay service tax, 60 per cent of the value is to be deducted from the total amount charged while applying the rate, and the tax is to be calculated on the balance 40 per cent.

The statement has elaborated that with the increase in the rate of service tax to 14 per cent (subsuming the education cesses) with effect from June 1, 2015, the effective rate of tax will be 5.6 per cent of the total amount charged, while prior to June 1, when the rate of service tax was 12.36 per cent (including education cess), the effective rate was 4.94 per cent. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget had proposed to raise service tax from 12.36 per cent (including education cess) to 14 per cent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8104.95, up by 82.55 points or 1.03% after trading in a range of 8023.80 and 8111.10. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cairn India up by 4.68%, BHEL up by 3.25%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.64%, Reliance Industries up by 2.40% and Tata Power up by 2.28%. On the flip side, Ambuja Cement down by 0.86%, NMDC down by 0.62%, BPCL down by 0.42%, Vedanta down by 0.41% and Lupin down by 0.41% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 0.54%, Straits Times gained 0.82%, Jakarta Composite surged by 1.46% and Taiwan Weighted added 1.16%. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 was lower by 0.25%, Hang Seng declined by 0.49%, Shanghai Composite lost 0.26% and KOSPI Index down by 0.62%.

European Markets were trading in the red; Germany’s DAX dropped 0.32%, UK’s FTSE declined 0.15% and France’s CAC was down by 0.55%.