Markets continue to trade in narrow range in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in narrow range with a negative bias in early noon session amid selling witnessed in Capital Goods, Realty, Bankex, Metal and Consumer Durables stocks. Weak global cues and depreciation in rupee value against the dollar weighed on the sentiments. Meanwhile, investors remained on sidelines ahead of the expiry of January derivative contracts today. Sentiments were weighed down after the US Federal Reserve kept the monetary policy unchanged citing weak economic growth. In scrip specific development, shares of Punj Lloyd surged 6.03% after the company’s joint venture with Limak (50-50 share) won Rs 2,780 crore TANAP gas pipeline contract in Turkey.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24475.59, down by 16.80 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 24400.52 and 24529.64. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in  red and green; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.20%, while Small cap index up by 0.14%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 0.92%, Power up by 0.72%, IT up by 0.13%, PSU up by 0.11% and Oil & Gas up by 0.06%, while Capital Goods down by 0.99%, Realty down by 0.66%, Bankex down by 0.34%, Metal down by 0.21% and Consumer Durables down by 0.15% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.55%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.52%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.19%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.19% and ITC up by 1.12%. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.74%, Tata Steel down by 1.59%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.54%, ICICI Bank down by 1.27% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.21% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to process the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission, the government has set up a 13-member Empowered Committee of Secretaries (CoS) headed by Cabinet Secretary. The committee has secretaries from ministries of Home Affairs and Defence, department of personnel and training, pension and PW, revenue, expenditure, posts, health, and science and technology. Chairman of Railway Board, Deputy CAG and Secretary (Security) in the Cabinet Secretariat are also on the panel.

The Empowered Committee will function as a Screening Committee to screen the recommendations of the Commission after taking into account the views of the concerned stakeholders, viz, the Ministries/Departments, Staff Associations and the JCM. The Implementation Cell created in the Department of Expenditure shall function as Secretariat for the Empowered Committee of Secretaries. The final recommendations of the Empowered Committee of Secretaries will be submitted for approval of the Cabinet.

The implementation of the new pay scales is estimated to put an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore on the exchequer in 2016-17. Subject to acceptance by the government, they will take effect from January 1, 2016. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that there is no worry about fiscal deficit and government would be able to meet its target despite additional outgo on account of higher pay.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7437.05, down by 0.70 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 7409.60 and 7447.35. There were 24 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid up by 3.04%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.23%, Cairn India up by 2.23%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.63% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.52%. On the flip side, PNB down by 1.92%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.87%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.63%, Tata Steel down by 1.48% and ICICI Bank down by 1.47% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Jakarta Composite increased 2.17 points or 0.05% to 4,585.80, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 4.39 points or 0.27% to 1,635.93, KOSPI Index increased 9 points or 0.47% to 1,906.87, Hang Seng increased 24.56 points or 0.13% to 19,077.01 and Taiwan Weighted increased 55.27 points or 0.7% to 7,905.10, while Shanghai Composite decreased 29.23 points or 1.07% to 2,706.33 and Nikkei 225 decreased 21.37 points or 0.12% to 17,142.55.