Benchmarks continue to trade higher in tight range

Indian equity benchmarks despite trimming some of their initial gains continue to trade higher but in tight-band in afternoon deals. Sentiments remained up-beat after India’s services sector activity touched an eight-month high in October driven by a significant rise in new business orders even as growth in manufacturing output eased. Appreciation in Indian rupee too supported the sentiments. The rupee gained 16 paise to trade at 65.48 per dollar mark on selling of the American currency by exporters and banks amid strength in the local equities. Buying in Auto space too aided sentiments led by over five and a half percent gains in Tata Motors shares on the back of better-than-expected JLR sales in the US. Metal stocks too remained on buyers’ radar on rebound in the commodity prices amid surge in the China markets.

Global cues too remained supportive with all the Asian markets trading in green at this point of time with Japanese stocks leading the way, while investors' bigger risk appetite pushed up US debt yields and lifted the dollar. Back home, on the sectoral front, auto, realty and consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while software and technology remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,354 shares on the gaining side against 1,032 shares on the losing side while 126 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26679.69, up by 89.10 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 26656.12 and 26800.06. There were 17 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.39%, while Small cap index up by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.87%, Realty up by 1.07%, Consumer Durables up by 0.87%, PSU up by 0.51% and FMCG up by 0.31%, while IT down by 0.24% and TECK down by 0.20% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 5.61%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.74%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.40%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.35% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.20%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 1.25%, ICICI Bank down by 0.63%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.62%, Reliance Industries down by 0.48% and Tata Steel down by 0.38% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to provide an alternative for buying physical gold, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has fixed the public issue price at Rs 2,684 per gram for the sovereign gold bonds. This is the first tranche of the gold bond scheme and subsequent tranches would be notified later. The applications for the bonds will be accepted from November 5 to November 20, 2015.

RBI has notified that the rates have been fixed on the basis of simple average of closing price for gold of 999 purity of the previous week (October 26-30, 2015) published by the India Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA). These bonds which will be sold through banks and designated post offices would be issued on November 26. These will be issued by the RBI on behalf of the Government of India. Therefore, these bonds will have a sovereign guarantee.

Indian residents including individuals, HUFs, trusts, universities and charitable institutions can buy the bonds. The Gold Bond scheme will offer investors an interest rate of 2.75 per cent and a choice to buy bonds worth 2 grams of gold, up to a maximum of 500 grams and tenor of the bond will be for a period of eight years with exit option from 5th year to be exercised on the interest payment dates.

The interest earned on gold bonds would be taxable, and capital gains tax shall be levied as in case of physical gold. The redemption of gold bonds will be done by banks, NBFCs and other authorized entities. Earlier, the Budget 2015-16 had proposed to launch a Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) scheme to develop a financial asset as an alternative to gold.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8076.65, up by 15.95 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 8070.65 and 8116.10. There were 27 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 5.61%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.60%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.43%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.31% and Bank of Baroda up by 1.30%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.14%, GAIL India down by 1.01%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.98%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.89% and Adani Ports &Special down by 0.89% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets were trading in green; KOSPI Index increased 4.37 points or 0.21% to 2,052.77, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 5.58 points or 0.33% to 1,683.14, Jakarta Composite surged 76.65 points or 1.69% to 4,609.74, Shanghai Composite soared 127.42 points or 3.84% to 3,444.12, Taiwan Weighted jumped 143.83 points or 1.65% to 8,857.02, Nikkei 225 increased 243.67 points or 1.3% to 18,926.91 and Hang Seng was up by 509.91 points or 2.26% to 23,078.34.