Benchmarks trade choppy in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks were truly depicting the choppiness on penultimate day of August F&O expiry. Frontline gauges once again entered into red terrain in noon deals on account of weakness in rupee. The rupee depreciated by 18 paise to 66.28 against the US dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange in noon deals due to fresh dollar demand from importers. Moreover, the traders will be keenly watching whether the government succeeds in convening a special session of Parliament to pass the crucial GST bill. However, losses remained capped after global rating agency Moody’s has said that it will upgrade India's rating if the government is able to push through reforms, inflation stabilises, regulatory environment improves and infrastructure investment rises. Some support also came with Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan’s statement that global financial markets may be in turmoil but Indian investors shouldn't worry too much.

Weak opening in European counters too dampened the sentiments with CAC, DAX and FTSE all trading with a cut of around one and a half percent in early deals. Asian markets were trading mostly in green at this point of time after China cut interest rates and banks' reserve requirements in a bid to kick-start its wavering economy. Back home, on the sectoral front, infrastructure, software and oil and gas witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while banking, auto and capital goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were trading mixed, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1262 shares on the gaining side against 1,121 shares on the losing side while 85 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25935.41, down by 96.97 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 25687.69 and 26156.61. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red and green; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.05%, while Small cap index up by 0.38%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were INFRA up by 1.01%, IT up by 0.98%, Oil & Gas up by 0.93%, Power up by 0.82% and Consumer Durables up by 0.78%, while Bankex down by 1.43%, Auto down by 0.58%, Capital Goods down by 0.53%, FMCG down by 0.36% and Healthcare down by 0.23% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 1.96%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.83%, Wipro up by 1.80%, Reliance Industries up by 1.49% and NTPC up by 1.47%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.11%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.93%, SBI down by 2.57%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.39% and ICICI Bank down by 1.96% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, based on the recommendation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) Government has approved 16 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals amounting Rs 1,152.53 crore approximately, including that of Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance, Encore Asset Reconstruction Company and News Laundry Media. FIPB cleared proposal of Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance to increase foreign equity from 26% to 49% of its paid-up capital. Further, government gave nod to News Laundry Media for raising its foreign equity from 6.25% to 18.64%. FDI proposal of Tata Global Beverages was also cleared for issuing shares to foreign collaborators of Mount Everest Mineral Water, a subsidiary of TGBL, pursuant to merger of the two companies.

Besides, FIPB also cleared FDI proposals of Arkadin ConferIndia, Zone Startup (India) Advisory, HSS BIM Solutions, Cogniphi Technologies, Move.in (Singapore), Logbase Inc, Celon Laboratories, Elanco India, Kinedex Healthcare, Windlas Biotech, Cairnhill CIPEF and Cairnhill CGPE and that of Akumentis Healthcare.

However, 11 proposals, including that of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, Aegon Religare Life Insurance, Almondz Insurance Brokers, Indian Herbs Specialties, IIFL Holdings and BTI Payments, were recommended for deferment. Meanwhile, similar number of proposals were rejected including that of Bloomberg Data Services India, Taurus Ventures, Architects 49, Afro Asia Equipments and Dhanvantari Technologies.

Additionally, FDI proposal of Cadila Healthcare of Rs 5,000 crore has been recommended for consideration of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). Cadila Healthcare is seeking approval for fresh equity infusion of up to Rs 5,000 crore under FDI route by Qualified Institutional Placement (QIBs) on a private placement basis for the expansion of the business.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7852.30, down by 28.40 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 7785.60 and 7930.05. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cairn India up by 3.38%, Tata Power up by 2.48%, Reliance Industries up by 2.09%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.02% and Idea Cellular up by 1.99%. On the flip side, Ambuja Cement down by 3.54%, Bank of Baroda down by 3.18%, SBI down by 2.90%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.68% and PNB down by 2.64% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Jakarta Composite increased 1.59 points or 0.04% to 4,230.09, Straits Times gained 11.95 points or 0.41% to 2,898.24, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI surged 16.47 points or 1.05% to 1,580.41, Taiwan Weighted rose 39.95 points or 0.52% to 7,715.59, KOSPI Index soared 47.46 points or 2.57% to 1,894.09 and Nikkei 225 was up by 570.13 points or 3.2% to 18,376.83. 

On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 58.15 points or 0.27% to 21,346.81 and Shanghai Composite was down by 13.77 points or 0.46% to 2,951.19.

European Markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX lost 1.76%, France’s CAC declined 1.53% and UK’s FTSE was down by 1.29%.