Benchmarks off day’s high; Nifty holds 7,000 mark

Indian equity benchmarks trimmed some of their gains and are trading off day’s high as investors opted to book some profit at higher levels. All eyes will be on another important event of the release of Economic Survey report in the parliament later in the day. Frontline gauges are trading in fine fettle and managing to hold their crucial 7,000 (Nifty) and 23,000 (Sensex) levels. Global cues remained supportive with Asian equity indices were trading in green at this point of time, tracking sharp overnight gains on Wall Street while recovery in global crude oil prices also aided sentiment. Chinese shares rebounded on Friday after the sharp plunge in the previous session.

Closer home, shares of United Spirits and KPIT Technologies were trading with traction after getting included in the futures and options (F&O) segment with effect from today. Banking stocks remained in limelight after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked lenders to spread out, in equal installments, provisions they make when they take over troubled loan accounts under a special restructuring programme to deal with stressed assets. The broader indices were trading mixed, while the market breadth on the BSE was slightly in favour of advances; there were 901 shares on the gaining side against 897 shares on the losing side, while 139 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 23079.38, up by 103.38 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 23033.31 and 23227.91. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.14%, while Small cap index down by 0.23%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.88%, Capital Goods up by 0.69%, TECK up by 0.67%, PSU up by 0.59% and Bankex up by 0.58%, while Telecom down by 0.49%, Materials down by 0.30%, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services down by 0.19% and Auto down by 0.01% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 1.97%, SBI up by 1.91%, Tata Motors up by 1.56%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.56% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.51%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.86%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.19%, Tata Steel down by 1.11%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.00% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Extending the ambit of direct benefit transfer, the government is planning to transfer the fertilizer subsidy directly to the farmer’s account. A Parliamentary Standing Committee report has stated that the department of fertiliser (DoF) is working closely with the mission Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) to implement it in fertilizers. It is working on a road map to capture the details of farmers, so that sales data can be captured and subsidy can be transferred to farmers’ accounts directly. The government will conduct a pilot project in 20 districts for direct transfer of subsidy on phosphoric and potassic fertilisers to the farmers. It has been reported that districts of Gujarat and Odisha are being selected to go for the pilot project.

In the current financial year 2015-16, the government has allocated about Rs 73,000 crore for the fertiliser subsidy. Out of the total for domestic urea the government has allocated Rs 38,200 crore and for imported urea Rs 12,300 crore. However, the remaining amount has been set aside for sale of decontrolled phosphoric and potassic fertilisers.

In April 2010, government had decontrolled phosphatic and potassic fertilisers, allowing manufacturers to fix their maximum retail price and get a fixed subsidy. At present, the subsidy is Rs 12,350 a tonne for phosphates and Rs 9,300 a tonne for potash. However, there is a growing view within the government that direct transfer of benefits to farmers would allow for sustainable and measured use of chemical fertilisers.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7003.15, up by 32.55 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 6990.85 and 7052.90. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 2.18%, Coal India up by 2.12%, SBI up by 1.98%, Axis Bank up by 1.76% and Cairn India up by 1.66%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.80%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.41%, Idea Cellular down by 1.41%, Tata Steel down by 1.17% and BPCL down by 1.07% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; KOSPI Index rose 2.03 points or 0.11% to 1,920.60, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 4.19 points or 0.25% to 1,662.35, Shanghai Composite increased 11.84 points or 0.43% to 2,753.09, Taiwan Weighted added 18.29 points or 0.22% to 8,384.15, Jakarta Composite surged 47.41 points or 1.02% to 4,705.73, Nikkei 225 soared 192.28 points or 1.19% to 16,332.62 and Hang Seng was up by 308.39 points or 1.63% to 19,197.14.