Benchmarks trade in green in early deals, Nifty reclaims 7950 mark

After making flat but negative opening, Indian equity markets are now trading in green with gains of around a quarter percent in early deals on Monday, on hope of the passage of the crucial Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in the current session of the Parliament. However, cautiousness prevailed in the markets ahead of the September quarter GDP data, due today post market hours and RBI monetary policy on Tuesday. Besides, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 519.25 crore on Friday, 27 November 2015, as per provisional data that kept pressurizing the sentiments. On the sectoral front, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading in fine fettle, with prominent gainers being the stocks from Auto, Consumer Durables, Power, Capital Goods and Bankex counters. On the flip side, stocks from FMCG, Healthcare counters were the only losers of the session.

In the scrip specific development, BF Utilities rallied 7% on the BSE after the company reported nearly double standalone net profit at Rs 8.11 crore for the fourth quarter ended September 2015, due to one-time gain of Rs 4.04 crore on sale of investments.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red tracking the mixed lead from Wall Street on Friday and lower commodity prices. Investors are also treading cautiously after the sell-off in the Chinese markets in the previous session.

Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 7,950 and 26,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1234: 444 while 108 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26225.19, up by 96.99 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 26096.09 and 26231.06. There were 20 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index, while 2 stocks remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.40%, while Small cap index gained 0.58%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.19%, Consumer Durables up by 0.88%, Power up by 0.83%, Capital Goods up by 0.79% and Bankex up by 0.67%, while FMCG down by 0.26%, Healthcare down by 0.11% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.00%, ICICI Bank up by 1.78%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.64%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.48% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.11%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 1.35%, GAIL India down by 0.79%, Lupin down by 0.31%, Coal India down by 0.28% and ITC down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya, amid the perception that Indian economy can gain from the deceleration of the Chinese economy, has said that the impact of China's economic slowdown on India will be largely dependent on how the country proceeds on policy reforms. India has sought China's assistance to increase the speed of the existing network as well as modernise some the of railway stations.

Panagariya said that China's slowdown is not a big surprise but quite contrary if it continued at 10 percent for the fifth decade that would be a surprise. He said that, “Chinese economy is $10 trillion, which is second largest. Even if it goes slower rate 6 to 7 per cent in ten years or less it will cross US economy which is around $16 trillion.”

NITI's Vice Chiarman pitched for large scale Chinese investments into India's massive infrastructure expansion plans and said that China should make its loans attractive compared to Japan's “incredibly attractive” finance. He further elaborated that Japanese are offering 40-year loan where there is no payments for 10 years and after that only 0.3 per cent a year. So it is a highly concessional loan. The Chinese are not offering anything close to that. So there is a big difference between the Chinese Japanese offers.

He also said that High-speed rail is an expensive proposition. What kind of finance the Chinese are willing to bring to the table is important. While, Japan is currently conducting feasibility study for Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train, China has undertaken a similar exercise for the Chennai-New Delhi corridor.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7963.10, up by 20.40 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 7927.40 and 7963.30. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.00%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.60%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.60%, ICICI Bank up by 1.50% and Tata Power up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.34%, GAIL India down by 0.98%, Cairn India down by 0.95%, Asian Paints down by 0.82% and Idea Cellular down by 0.69% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red, Nikkei 225 decreased 163.38 points or 0.82% to 19,720.56, Taiwan Weighted decreased 137.57 points or 1.64% to 8,260.83, Hang Seng decreased 61.19 points or 0.28% to 22,007.13, Shanghai Composite decreased 60.92 points or 1.77% to 3,375.39, Jakarta Composite decreased 40.76 points or 0.89% to 4,519.80, KOSPI Index decreased 38.35 points or 1.89% to 1,990.64 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 18.53 points or 1.1% to 1,664.06.