Benchmarks trade flat with negative bias

Indian equity benchmarks oscillating between negative and positive zone, are now trading flat with a negative bias in early noon session. Investors have turned cautious ahead of F&O expiry for the month of December. Traders will roll over their positions in the futures & options (F&O) segment from the near month December 2015 series to January 2016 series on Thursday.  However, investors got some support with the World Bank chief economist - Kaushik Basu’s statement that the Indian economy is expected to grow at 7 to 7.5 percent in 2016.Traders were seen piling up positions in Power, Capital Goods, Metal, TECK and PS stocks, while selling was witnessed in Oil & Gas, Banking, Auto and Consumer Durables sector stocks. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, following renewed selling in recently battered crude oil futures. Back home, market breadth is positive on the BSE with 1374 shares advancing and 858 shares declining. In scrip specific development, share of Petron Engineering Construction was trading higher after the company has won a construction order from JSW Cement for civil and structural work for 2 x 1.2MTPA GGBS Grinding Unit at Salboni, West Bengal.
 
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26070.72, down by 8.76 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 26057.67 and 26130.20. There were 16 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.51%, while Small cap index added 0.35%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.56%, Capital Goods up by 0.51%, Metal up by 0.49%, TECK up by 0.28% and PSU up by 0.19%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.30%, Bankex down by 0.12%, Auto down by 0.06% and Consumer Durables down by 0.05% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.43%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.18%, BHEL up by 0.92%, NTPC up by 0.62% and Wipro up by 0.59%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 0.90%, Reliance Industries down by 0.56%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.56%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.49% and Cipla down by 0.44% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government, based on the recommendation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), has approved four foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals amounting Rs 1,810 crore including that of HDFC Standard Life Insurance, Firefly Networks and Software is Correct, lnc.

The proposal of HDFC Standard Life will entail foreign investment of Rs 1,700 crore.  HDFC Standard Life had approached the FIPB for transfer of its shares currently held by HDFC to Standard Life (Mauritius Holdings) 2006, thereby increasing foreign shareholding in insurance JV from 26 per cent to 35 per cent. FireFly Networks had sought approval of the existing foreign investment (50 per cent indirect) and to permit commencement of activities as a Telecom Infrastructure Provider Category-I. The proposal does not entail any new FDI.

However, out of the nine proposals which were discussed by the FIPB, four was deferred and one was withdrawn. The four deferred proposals include Aviva Life Insurance to increase the foreign shareholding from 26 per cent to 49 per cent. It also included Tata Sikorsky which had sought FIPB approval for non-resident to non-resident transfer of 26 per cent of the shares of Tata Sikorsky Aerospace from United Technologies International Corporation - Asia Private to Lockheed Martin Global, Inc. (USA). Besides, the proposal of Sharekhan and Quantum Simulators was also deferred. The one proposal which was withdrawn was that of SunE Solar BV as it came under automatic route.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7928.40, down by 0.55 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 7924.35 and 7944.75. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 1.62%, Tata Steel up by 1.35%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.32%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.05% and BHEL up by 1.04%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 0.87%, ICICI Bank down by 0.76%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.65%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.61% and Reliance Industries down by 0.58% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 115.05 points or 0.52% to 21,884.57, Shanghai Composite decreased 20.44 points or 0.57% to 3,543.29, Taiwan Weighted decreased 13.92 points or 0.17% to 8,279.99 and KOSPI Index decreased 1.38 points or 0.07% to 1,964.93, while FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 14.23 points or 0.84% to 1,699.59, Jakarta Composite increased 20.87 points or 0.46% to 4,590.23 and Nikkei 225 increased 58.05 points or 0.31% to 19,040.28.