Markets remain in consolidation mood lacking any major cues

Indian markets after choppy initial trade  have stablised in the late morning session, though the impact of scheduled F&O series expiry was visible and the benchmarks progressing towards the noon were witnessing bouts of profit taking with simultaneous short covering that was keeping them in flat territory. The CNX Nifty was holding 8350 crucial level, while the Sensex was inching towards 27800 mark. The global concerns were keeping the sentiments cautious and infra stocks too were not showing any action despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing the implementation details for three major schemes, 100 Smart Cities, the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation and housing for all.

The early cautiousness on pessimism in global equity markets over concerns that Greece's creditors have rejected the debt repayment proposals, was slightly being overlooked by traders, as they were busy adjusting the positions in the F&O market. The June series has been more or less flat with Nifty June contracts witnessing around 44 per cent rollover to the July series so far. Average of last three expiries saw 58 per cent of contracts being rolled over to the next series and the June series is likely to be in-line to them. The broader markets too were trading on a flat note. On the sectoral front the different indices were showing a mixed trend, the IT and tech stocks were showing some weakness, as the Indian rupee showed signs of stabilization after two days of fall. The banking stocks too were in somber mood, although the finance ministry has asked public sector banks to submit their immediate and mid-term capital requirement from the government to comply with global capital adequacy norms and also to fund their growth plans. On the other hand capital goods, realty and oil & gas stocks were moving higher.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27765.77, up by 36.10 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 27635.76 and 27800.33. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices too were managing to hold in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.01%, while Small cap index increased by 0.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.76%, Realty up by 0.61%, Oil & Gas up by 0.49%, Power up by 0.45%, Auto up by 0.17%, while IT down by 0.81%, FMCG down by 0.64%, Consumer Durables down by 0.57%, TECK down by 0.53%, Bankex down by 0.09% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 1.40%, BHEL up by 1.36%, Reliance Industries up by 1.11%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.07% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.06%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 1.38%, Wipro down by 1.25%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.08%, ITC down by 0.91% and ONGC down by 0.87% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has  launched three ambitious schemes, 100 smart cities, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and housing for all. The schemes are aimed at developing cities and towns. While the Smart City and AMRUT projects will draw Rs 48,000 crore and and Rs 50,000 crore, respectively, in central grants over five years, Housing-for-All by 2022 will see the government spend about Rs 3 lakh crore in the next seven years.

PM Modi will unveil the criteria and guidelines for the smart cities and other schemes and it will be followed by a two-day workshop in which over 1000 mayors, municipal heads, ministers concerned from states and their chief secretaries will take part. Representatives of embassies, which have shown interest for their countries' participation in these projects, will also take part in the workshop. Smart cities project will be based on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model and neither the Centre not states will have any discretion in choosing 100 cities through a competition for smart cities scheme.

500 cities having 1 lakh and more population will be chosen for AMRUT project. Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has said that these 500 cities will become engines of growth and they in turn should develop into smart cities.

PM will also unveil the logo of the housing mission, under the housing scheme, interest subsidy of 6.5 per cent on housing loans with tenure up to 15 years will be provided to EWS and low income groups, giving them a benefit of about Rs 2.3 lakh each.

The operational guidelines for each of the three projects - which lay the ground rules and framework for implementation -- were framed after extensive, almost year-long consultations with states, Union Territories and urban local bodies.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8360.60, down by 0.25 points after trading in a range of 8329.50 and 8371.70. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 1.72%, Cairn India up by 1.59%, BHEL up by 1.24%, HDFC up by 1.21% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.06%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 2.30%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.08%, Cipla down by 1.38%, Wipro down by 1.29% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.26% were the top losers.

All the major Asian markets were trading in red, barring Taiwan Weighted which surged by 79.03 points or 0.84% to 9,476.34.

On the other hand, Hang Seng declined by 133.88 points or 0.49% to 27,271.09, Nikkei 225 dropped 39.85 points or 0.19% to 20,828.18, Jakarta Composite lost 19.24 points or 0.39% to 4,934.27, Shanghai Composite was down by17.24 points or 0.37% to 4,672.91, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI lost 7.57 points or 0.44% to 1,724.11, Straits Times declined by 3.68 points or 0.11% to 3,347.65 and KOSPI Index was tad lower by 0.47 points or 0.02% to 2,085.06.