Markets trade marginally in red paring early gains

After making a good start, benchmarks have pared down their initial gains and are now trading with marginal losses as investors opted to book profit. There was some cautiousness in the markets with Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Financial Stability Report (FSR), stating that stressed balance-sheets of large and medium sized firms have increased the risks to the banking sector during the half-year ended September 2015 due to deteriorating asset quality, lower soundness and sluggish profitability. Also, as the winter session of parliament ended without passage of GST and bankruptcy Bills. However, down side remained capped on report that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 385.82 crore December 23, 2015, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. The markets will remain closed tomorrow on account of Christmas.

In the scrip specific development, V-Mart Retail rallied 17% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved hike in investment limit by overseas investors by up to 49%. Biocon has moved higher by 6%, its 52-week high on the BSE, after the company announced the introduction of an advanced novel therapy CIMIVIR-L for the treatment of Hepatitis C in India.

On the global front, the US stocks ended higher, propelled by sharp gains in energy stocks as a rebound in oil prices boosted sentiment heading into the Christmas holiday.  Asian markets were trading mostly in green buoyed by the positive cues overnight from Wall Street.

Back home, on the sectoral front, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading in green, with prominent gainers being the stocks from Metal, Oil & Gas, PSU, FMCG and Auto counters. On the flip side, stocks from Bankex, TECK and Realty counters were the only losers of the session. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1100: 569 while 121scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25844.11, down by 6.19 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 25832.98 and 25922.47. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.15%, while Small cap index gained 0.25%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.75%, Oil & Gas up by 0.60%, PSU up by 0.48%, FMCG up by 0.37% and Auto up by 0.36%, while Bankex down by 0.28%, TECK down by 0.10% and Realty down by 0.01% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 1.76%, Coal India up by 1.40%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.15%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.78% and Lupin up by 0.77%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 0.92%, Adani Ports &Special down by 0.70%, Tata Steel down by 0.51%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.48% and Axis Bank down by 0.42% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, indicating the uncertain path of proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) after the parliament’s winter session ended with members failing to vote for it, Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha has said that it is difficult to predict a timeline for the passage of a bill. He said that “We will have to see how the legislative calendar develops”. 'It's very hard to predict how soon that will happen.”

Sinha further said that the solutions government offered for the three conditions of the Opposition, were reasonable and any party who wants what is good for the nation will agree to what has been suggested.

Though, he asserted that GST is a transaction tax and it can be put in place overnight, adding that  administratively, we are ready to go for April 1, 2016. If indeed the Constitution Amendment Bill is passed in the Budget session, we will have to see, how legislative calendar then develops.

The proposed GST Bill seeks to harmonise state taxes and seeks to replace a slew of federal and state levies. The GST Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on May 6, 2015, receiving 352 votes for and 37 against. Being a constitution amendment bill, it has to be passed by two third majority in both the houses of Parliament and at least by 50 percent of state legislatures.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7863.00, down by 2.95 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 7858.55 and 7888.75. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cairn India up by 2.84%, Vedanta up by 1.57%, ONGC up by 1.55%, Coal India up by 1.21% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.18%. On the flip side, PNB down by 1.11%, Zee Entertainment down by 0.97%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.80%, Adani Ports &Special down by 0.80% and Tata Steel down by 0.78% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, KOSPI Index increased 1.44 points or 0.07% to 2,000.66, Nikkei 225 increased 3.84 points or 0.02% to 18,890.54, Jakarta Composite increased 5.09 points or 0.11% to 4,522.65, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 20.25 points or 1.23% to 1,663.51, Taiwan Weighted increased 31.44 points or 0.38% to 8,347.14 and Hang Seng increased 102.09 points or 0.46% to 22,142.68.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 51.07 points or 1.4% to 3,585.02.