Benchmarks trade flat with positive bias in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks were trading flat with positive bias in noon deals on Tuesday with frontline gauges inching towards their crucial 27,400 (Sensex) and 8,300 (Nifty) levels. Markets managed to trade marginally green as some support came with the monthly SBI Composite Index that has stated that country's manufacturing sector growth improved in October largely driven by the manufacturing sector, but mining and electricity are still acting as a drag on the economic activity. However gains remained capped after global rating agency Standard and Poor’s ruled out any rating upgrade for India, though it said that improvement in policy making have raised the country's prospect for economic and fiscal performance.

On the global front, European counters have made a positive opening and were trading marginally in green in early deals. Most of the Asian equity indices, reversing their initial losses, were trading in green at this point of time as investors opted to buy beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks. However, upside remained capped after commodity prices languished in the wake of China growth woes. Back home, on the sectoral front, power, consumer durables and auto witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while metal, oil and gas and fast moving consumer goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices, however, were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,481 shares on the gaining side against 975 shares on the losing side while 180 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27386.65, up by 21.73 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 27323.45 and 27413.44. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.75%, while Small cap index up by 0.68%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.66%, Consumer Durables up by 1.25%, Auto up by 1.07%, IT up by 0.87% and Capital Goods up by 0.74%, while Metal down by 0.69%, Oil & Gas down by 0.42%, FMCG down by 0.19%, Realty down by 0.11% and Healthcare down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 3.57%, TCS up by 1.46%, NTPC up by 1.37%, Axis Bank up by 0.81% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.68%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.49%, Vedanta down by 1.89%, Hindalco down by 1.39%, ONGC down by 1.20% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha has said that the government's fiscal position will not get impacted by the two aspects such as implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP) and the increase in salary bill due to seventh pay commission. Sinha said that 'I think we are in a very good shape as far as fiscal management is concerned'.

Further, he said that the government's fiscal situation is robust enough to weather the impact from the implementation of the OROP and the Pay Commission recommendations on salary hikes of Central government employees.

The implementation of OROP is likely to cost around of Rs 8,000-10,000 crore for the government this fiscal year. Besides, recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission are expected to increase the government's salary expenditure of over Rs 1 lakh crore projected for this fiscal year. Recently, the Union finance ministry had said that the Pay Commission would be aware of the government's fiscal issues while making recommendations on salary hike to about 48 lakh Central government employees and 55 lakh pensioners.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8287.10, up by 12.05 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 8258.40 and 8290.00. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 3.58%, Tata Power up by 3.24%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.55%, NTPC up by 1.49% and Power Grid up by 1.49%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.59%, Cairn India down by 2.47%, Vedanta down by 1.90%, Hindalco down by 1.61% and Adani Ports &Special down by 1.45% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased 4.42 points or 0.13% to 3,391.12, KOSPI Index agined 9.09 points or 0.45% to 2,039.36, Taiwan Weighted jumped 22.1 points or 0.26% to 8,653.60, Jakarta Composite added 30.28 points or 0.66% to 4,600.13 and Nikkei 225 was up by 75.92 points or 0.42% to 18,207.15. On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 214.54 points or 0.93% to 22,861.07 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 4.8 points or 0.28% to 1,713.40.

European Markets were trading in the green; Germany’s DAX gained 0.21%, France’s CAC added 0.10% and UK’s FTSE was up by 0.10%.