Choppiness continues on Dalal Street

Choppiness continued on Dalal-Street with frontline gauges trading in tight-band, tad below their neutral line in afternoon deals. Traders remained concerned over the passage of the goods and services tax (GST) bill in parliament. The sentiments were also weighed down with report that the Finance Ministry has cut its ambitious disinvestment revenue target by 57% to Rs 30,000 crore for the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, the government introduced the 'Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2015', or the bankruptcy Bill, in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The Bill is one of the steps that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has identified as crucial for India to improve ease of doing business. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green terrain at this point of time, taking solace from Wall Street gains and some stability in recently weak crude oil prices, though the gains were capped by caution ahead of this week’s holidays. Back home, telecom stocks remained in action with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) saying that it will come up with its recommendations on spectrum pricing for the next round of auction by mid-January. TRAI has floated a consultation paper on reference made by the government to suggest the base or floor price for all available airwaves for mobile services. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,511 shares on the gaining side against 896 shares on the losing side while 211 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25712.67, down by 23.23 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 25485.17 and 25738.57. There were 14 stocks advancing against 15 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 0.25%, while Small cap index up by 0.48%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.20%, Consumer Durables up by 0.49%, Healthcare up by 0.48%, Bankex up by 0.47% and Power up by 0.30%, while IT down by 0.87%, TECK down by 0.63%, FMCG down by 0.42%, Auto down by 0.06% and Capital Goods down by 0.05% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 1.45%, Axis Bank up by 1.43%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.36%, Sun Pharma up by 0.85% and NTPC up by 0.84%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.45%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.10%, TCS down by 1.07%, ITC down by 0.68% and Adani Ports &Special down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has introduced a Bill in the Lok Sabha to consolidate and amend all laws relating to insolvency resolution so as to tackle the issue of undue delays. The ‘Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015’ provides for resolution of insolvency in a speedier and time-bound manner and aims at promoting investments, freeing up banks’ resources for other productive uses, boosting credit markets and improving ease of doing business in India. The important thing of the Bill is that it has been introduced as a money Bill, which means Rajya Sabha cannot reject or amend it once it is passed by the Lower House.

The Bill proposes the setting up of an Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India to regulate insolvency regulate professionals, agencies and information utilities engaged in resolution of insolvencies of companies, partnership firms and individuals. It also proposes the setting up of a fund dubbed the ‘Insolvency and Bankruptcy Fund of India’. The Code seeks to provide for designating National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) as the adjudicating authorities for corporate persons and firms and individuals, respectively, for resolution of insolvency, liquidation and bankruptcy.

As per the proposed legislation, the corporate insolvency would have to be resolved within a period 180 days, extendable by 90 days. It also provides for fast-track resolution of corporate insolvency within 90 days. The Code also seeks to balance the interest of all the stakeholders including alteration in the priority of payment of government dues.

Earlier Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das has said that “Next to GST, bankruptcy legislation will be the biggest reform”. CII Director General, Chandrajit Banerjee too has said that the proposed Bill aims for a complete renovation of the current insolvency and bankruptcy system in India, which will help streamline the procedure of revival of companies facing financial distress.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7823.85, down by 10.60 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 7802.00 and 7831.05. There were 26 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index  while 2 stocks remained unchanged

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 1.53%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.46%, Idea Cellular up by 1.19%, Axis Bank up by 1.16% and NTPC up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.55%, TCS down by 1.37%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.22%, ITC down by 0.95% and Indusind Bank down by 0.70% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased 3.67 points or 0.1% to 3,646.14, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 5.26 points or 0.32% to 1,634.35, Jakarta Composite rose 8.38 points or 0.19% to 4,499.06, Taiwan Weighted jumped 10.57 points or 0.13% to 8,292.74, KOSPI Index added 11.37 points or 0.57% to 1,992.56 and Hang Seng was up by 15.49 points or 0.07% to 21,807.17. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was down by 29.32 points or 0.16% to 18,886.70.