Benchmarks reverse gears; enters into positive territory

Indian equity benchmarks erased losses and are now trading in green in the late afternoon session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters and taking cues from global counterparts. Traders were seen piling position in FMCG, Power and Oil & Gas stocks while selling was witnessed in Capital Goods, Realty and TECK sector stocks. In scrip specific development, telecom stocks Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications were trading under pressure after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed auction of 700 MHz spectrum at a reserve price of Rs 11,485 crore per MHz. This is the highest reserve price fixed for a band ever since the process for spectrum auction started nearly five years ago. The market may remain volatile today as traders may roll over positions in the Futures & Options (F&O) segment from the near month i.e. January 2016 series to next month i.e. February 2016 series. The near month January 2016 derivatives contracts will expire today i.e. January 28, 2016.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in green while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 7,450 and 24,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1192:1215 while 170 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24541.02, up by 48.63 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 24400.52 and 24543.52. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.10%, while Small cap index up by 0.22%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.50%, Power up by 0.80%, Oil & Gas up by 0.71%, PSU up by 0.44%, Auto up by 0.21% while, Capital Goods down by 0.96%, Realty down by 0.75%, TECK down by 0.19%, Consumer Durables down by 0.10%, Metal down by 0.09% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.55%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.54%, ITC up by 2.24%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.76% and Sun Pharma up by 1.42%.

On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 2.09%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.65%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.56%, BHEL down by 1.43% and HDFC down by 1.43% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India has been placed at 76th position in public sector corruption out of 168 countries in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2015, improving its slot from 85 in 2014 and 94 in 2013. Despite an improvement in the overall ranking, India’s corruption perception score remained same at 38 out of a 100 as it had in 2014, which is seen as insufficient improvement. It stood at the same position as Brazil, but seven places above China, and well above Russia, which came in at 119th.

India though does not have much to cheer about as neighboring Bhutan has achieved a much better ranking of 27. Countries facing strife and conflicts were found at the bottom of the index. For a third year running, Denmark was perceived as the cleanest country with a score of 91 and topped the list. North Korea and Somalia were the worst performers, scoring just eight points each ranked last. The US rose one spot this year to 16th place with a score of 76, tying with Austria. The UK rose three spots to place 10th, with a score of 81 that tied it with Germany and Luxembourg. The other top spots, from second to ninth, were occupied by Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore and Canada.

Transparency International in its report noted that a majority of countries on the list had seen their score improve, as citizen-led protest movements against corruption piled pressure on governments. The report further said that this year’s poor results demand that leaders revisit the genuineness of their efforts. They must fulfill promises and ensure efforts aren’t undermined in practice.

Among the characteristics shared by the top performers list were high levels of press freedom, transparency about budgets, high levels of public sector integrity and fair and independent judiciaries. Transparency International, however, cautioned that a clean public sector record at home didn’t necessarily translate into a good performance abroad.  The Transparency International uses data from institutions including the World Bank, the African Development Bank and business school IMD to compile the perceptions of the scale of public sector corruption. The index grades a country on a scale of zero to 100, the latter being the least corrupt.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7454.60, up by 16.85 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 7409.60 and 7456.65. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cairn India up by 3.79%, Power Grid up by 3.40%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.85%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.74% and Hindustan Unilever up by 2.55%.

On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 3.24%, Grasim Industries down by 2.88%, Adani Ports &Special down by 2.11%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.80% and HDFC down by 1.56% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 1.02 points or 0.06% to 1,632.56, Jakarta Composite increased 4.28 points or 0.09% to 4,587.91, KOSPI Index increased 9.07 points or 0.48% to 1,906.94, Taiwan Weighted increased 55.27 points or 0.7% to 7,905.10 and Hang Seng increased 143.38 points or 0.75% to 19,195.83.

On the other hand; Nikkei 225 decreased 122.47 points or 0.71% to 17,041.45 and Shanghai Composite decreased 79.9 points or 2.92% to 2,655.66.

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 17.41 points or 0.29% to 6,007.78, Germany’s DAX increased 16.2 points or 0.16% to 9,897.02 and France’s CAC increased 18.02 points or 0.41% to 4,398.38.