Markets trade in green early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks pared some early gains but continued to trade in green in the early noon session, on the back of buying by funds and retail investors. Besides, firm trade at other Asian markets, too supported the markets. Investors got some encouragement as Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has raised the India's growth forecast compared to 7.3 percent expansion projected in November 2015. It has said that Indian economy will continue to see robust growth at 7.4 percent in the next financial year even as only modest recovery is expected in advanced economies. Meanwhile, shares of ITC dropped over 2% on worries that the forthcoming Budget would raise excise duty on cigarettes. Traders were seen piling position in Oil & Ga, Realty, Capital goods, Metal and PSU stocks while selling was witnessed in IT, Power, FMCG, Bankex and TECk sector stocks.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as investors awaited a rush of February industry surveys to take the pulse of the global economy, while sterling stumbled on concerns the UK might yet vote to leave the European Union. Back home, in scrip specific development, shares of JK Tyre & Industries were trading higher after the Competition Commission of India has approved the proposed acquisition as per its application dated October 12, 2015. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 23733.75, up by 24.60 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 23674.86 and 23817.32. 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 0.37%, while Small cap index up by 0.35%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.51%, Realty up by 0.43%, Capital Goods up by 0.30%, Metal up by 0.25% and PSU up by 0.19%, while IT down by 0.31%, Power down by 0.18%, FMCG down by 0.17%, Bankex down by 0.06% and TECK down by 0.02% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.88%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.82%, Sun Pharma up by 1.74%, Reliance Industries up by 1.53% and Lupin up by 1.38%. On the flip side, ITC down by 2.35%, Wipro down by 1.84%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.68%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.54% and BHEL down by 0.93% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government is likely to roll out the national social security card scheme in the budget for 2016-17 on February 29, allowing the beneficiaries to avail themselves the benefits of half dozen social security schemes under one platform. This exercise is likely to kick off with the unorganized sector workers, leveraging the Aadhaar platform and Jan Dhan accounts. The initiative is expected to help the government strengthen its commitment to the workers.

For this fiscal, the labour ministry has moved a proposal of Rs 1,350 crore to register and issue national social security card to workers in the unorganised sector. The ministry is supposed to have finalised the design, software and guidelines to issue these smart cards and once the proposal is approved it will kick start the exercise of registering the beneficiaries and eventually issuing them a single smart card. The portable smart card is expected to contain details of bank account, mobile number and benefits of social security schemes that the workers can avail themselves of.

About 40 crore unorganised workers in the country, accounting for nearly 89% of the total workforce, could benefit from the single digital card that will fetch them monetary benefits under schemes including the Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana, the Atal Pension Yojana, the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, besides the oldage pension schemes.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7224.15, up by 13.40 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 7200.70 and 7243.05. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bosch up by 3.76%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.98%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.16%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.92% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.91%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 2.69%, ITC down by 2.27%, Vedanta down by 2.08%, Wipro down by 1.87% and Adani Ports &Special down by 1.77% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 0.12 points or 0.01% to 1,916.36, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.4 points or 0.02% to 1,675.28, Taiwan Weighted increased 1.64 points or 0.02% to 8,326.68, Shanghai Composite increased 63.88 points or 2.23% to 2,923.90, Nikkei 225 increased 134.93 points or 0.85% to 16,102.10 and Hang Seng increased 159.26 points or 0.83% to 19,444.76, while Jakarta Composite decreased 4.09 points or 0.09% to 4,693.47.