Markets continue to trade firm in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade firm in early noon session, on account of value buying in blue-chip stocks. Besides, covering-up of short positions by speculators too was supporting the markets. Sentiment got up-beat with the report that cabinet approved the revised Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2015, leading to a rally in real estate stocks, the passage of the Bill, which covers both residential and commercial real estate, could lead to a re-rating of the domestic real estate sector. Some support also come with report of Indirect tax collection in November rising 24.3 per cent to Rs 55,297 crore on the back of growth in excise mobilisation, reflecting an uptick in industrial activity.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as weak oil prices continued to feed global growth worries. Back home, both sensex and Nifty were trading above their crucial 25,100 and 7,600 levels, respectively. In scrip specific development, share of Havells India was trading higher by 4.74% after the company’s wholly owned subsidiary -- Havells Holdings proposed to enter into definitive agreement with Shanghai Feilo Acoustics (Feilo) to divest 80% stake in Havells Sylvania Malta BV.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2447 stocks traded, 1394 stocks advanced, while 894 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25086.86, up by 50.81 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 25034.14 and 25175.82. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.11%, while Small cap index gained 0.23%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.97%, Oil & Gas up by 0.96%, Metal up by 0.63%, IT up by 0.46% and Capital Goods up by 0.43%, while Bankex down by 0.46%, Auto down by 0.45%, Consumer Durables down by 0.10%, Power down by 0.06% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 2.24%, Hindalco up by 2.24%, Reliance Industries up by 2.01%, HDFC up by 1.42% and Cipla up by 1.14%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 2.41%, Tata Motors down by 1.48%, Lupin down by 1.48%, BHEL down by 1.42% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha has said that meeting April 1 deadline for GST rollout seems to be challenging, amid ongoing political turbulence.

Stating the reason Sinha said “legislative side is complicated because you need two-third majority in the Rajya Sabha, you need 50 per cent of states to pass it and then we have to get GST Bill to be passed. Hence, there is lot of heavy lifting to be done on legislative side which makes this challenging in terms of April 1, 2016”. Sinha further added “We will keep pushing as far as GST is concerned. It will happen sooner rather than later.”

Further he stated that if indeed the legislation gets passed across the Centre and states then there is no reason why the government cannot implement in the year at any point. He also said that the present regime is pro-poor and pro-market.

The Constitutional Amendment Bill to roll out GST is stuck in the Rajya Sabha due to stiff opposition by the Congress party and might be delayed further because of the tough stance taken by the main opposition party over the National Herald case issue.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7624.55, up by 12.05 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 7610.00 and 7651.50. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 2.40%, Hindalco up by 2.24%, Reliance Industries up by 2.04%, HDFC up by 1.44% and Asian Paints up by 1.13%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.50%, Tata Motors down by 1.57%, Yes Bank down by 1.56%, BHEL down by 1.42% and Zee Entertainment down by 1.39% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 250.66 points or 1.3% to 19,050.41, Taiwan Weighted decreased 13.45 points or 0.16% to 8,216.17, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 6.77 points or 0.41% to 1,652.59 and Jakarta Composite decreased 4.95 points or 0.11% to 4,459.23, while Hang Seng increased 2.85 points or 0.01% to 21,806.61, KOSPI Index increased 5.72 points or 0.29% to 1,953.96 and Shanghai Composite increased 17.66 points or 0.51% to 3,490.10.