Markets continue to trade flat with positive bias

Indian equity benchmarks were trading flat with positive bias in early noon session, extending the uptrend for the second day, on sustained buying by participants amid a firming trend in Asia. Investors got some encouragement with the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the rolling out the ambitious Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is ‘certainly’ doable in 2016 and he is in ‘continuous touch’ with the Congress party in a bid to persuade them to cooperate. He hope that in the next session (of Parliament), the GST will make headway. Traders were seen piling up positions in Auto, Oil & Gas, Realty, Power and PSU stocks, while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables and FMCG sector stocks.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading marginally in green, as investors shrugged off overnight losses on Wall Street. Back home, in scrip specific development, share of Suven Life Sciences was trading higher after the company secured two product patents in Europe and Macau. Credit Analysis and Research (CARE) was trading higher after the company and Japan Credit Rating Agency signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate with each other as strategic business partners and have agreed to cooperate with each other to maximize their support for the Indian and Japanese companies’ funding and other business activities

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26080.07, up by 45.94 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 26065.08 and 26133.78. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.57%, while Small cap index was up by 0.27%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.60%, Oil & Gas up by 0.50%, Realty up by 0.39%, Power up by 0.38% and PSU up by 0.27%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.64% and FMCG down by 0.26% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 1.80%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.70%, NTPC up by 1.43%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.19% and Adani Ports &Special up by 1.17%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.13%, BHEL down by 0.58%, Coal India down by 0.34%, ITC down by 0.31% and ICICI Bank down by 0.21% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a move to curb the supply of subsidsed cooking gas, the government has decided that the tax payers with an annual income of more than 10 lakh in the previous financial year computed as per the Income Tax Act, 1961 will not get the benefit of subsidy on LPG cylinders. This will be applicable from January 1, 2016 onwards. The new system will deny subsidy to such consumers even if the cooking gas connection is in the name of the spouse.

This has been initiated as the government felt that consumers in the high income bracket should buy cylinders at market price, continuing a series of reforms including market-based diesel prices, direct transfer of LPG subsidy and a new approach towards oilfield contracts that eliminates bureaucratic meddling. In keeping with the approach of trusting the citizens, the rule will initially be implemented on self-declaration basis for cylinders booked from January 2016 onwards.

At present, there are 16.35 crore cooking gas connections in the country. The government had earlier successfully implemented the PAHAL scheme, which transferred cooking gas subsidy directly to bank accounts of 14.78 crore customers to ensure that benefits go only to the target group.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched a ‘GiveitUp’ campaign earlier in the year asking those who can afford it to voluntarily give up LPG subsidy.The subsidy saved from the campaign is being utilised for providing new connections to the BPL families under the 'Giveback' campaign to help provide the clean fuel to poor households and replace kerosene, coal, fuel wood and cow dung burnt in kitchens. While many consumers have given up subsidy voluntarily, the government felt that consumers in the higher income bracket should get LPG cylinders at the market price.The government had also given a call to well-to-do households for voluntarily giving up LPG subsidy. This encouraged 57.50 lakh consumers to opt out of LPG subsidy voluntarily.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7933.70, up by 8.55 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 7923.90 and 7942.15. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 2.02%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.49%, NTPC up by 1.32%, Vedanta up by 1.25% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.19%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.09%, HCL Tech. down by 0.92%, Power Grid down by 0.63%, Bank Of Baroda down by 0.60% and BHEL down by 0.52% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 3.24 points or 0.16% to 1,967.30, Jakarta Composite increased 4.87 points or 0.11% to 4,562.22, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 7.35 points or 0.44% to 1,678.08, Hang Seng increased 80.18 points or 0.37% to 21,999.80 and Nikkei 225 increased 95.29 points or 0.5% to 18,968.64, while Taiwan Weighted decreased 60.68 points or 0.73% to 8,297.81 and Shanghai Composite decreased 8.33 points or 0.24% to 3,525.45.