Markets trade marginally in green in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks altering between positive and negative territory, were trading marginally in green in early noon session on buying by funds and retail investors in select stocks. Investors got some encouragement with Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian’s statement that India is expected to accelerate to 8-10 percent growth rate in two to five years on account of structure reforms and encouraging competitive federalism. Meanwhile, shares of agriculture sector are trading higher after finance minister presents a Union Budget which focuses on rural economy. Finance Minister (FM) Arun Jaitley has allocated Rs 5,500 crore for crop insurance scheme. However, gains were capped on weakness in the global markets.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after a weekend meeting of Group of 20 (G-20) policy makers ended with no new co-ordinated action to spur global growth and as solid US data revived the expectation of the Federal Reserve further raising rates before year-end. Back home, in scrip specific development, shares of Jaiprakash Associates were trading higher after the company signed a binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UltraTech Cement for divestment of part of its cement businesses. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 23167.94, up by 13.64 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 23003.89 and 23293.80. There were 12 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.21%, while Small cap index down by 0.31%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 0.98%, Metal up by 0.76%, PSU up by 0.54% and Capital Goods up by 0.19%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.20%, IT down by 1.12%, TECK down by 0.99%, FMCG down by 0.73% and Power down by 0.30% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 3.68%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.69%, ICICI Bank up by 2.46%, Tata Steel up by 2.13% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.91%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.09%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.91%, Infosys down by 1.55%, GAIL India down by 1.52% and NTPC down by 1.19% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India has received $29.44 billion foreign direct investment (FDI), surging by 40 percent during April-December in the current fiscal. The FDI inflows were at $21.04 billion in the same period of previous fiscal. According to data of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), during the period, the sectors which attracted FDI include computer software and hardware, services sector, trading, automobile and chemicals.

Computer hardware and software segment attracted the highest FDI of $5.30 billion during the period under review, followed by services sector which attracted FDI $4.25 billion, trading business attracted FDI $2.71 billion, and automobile industry attracted FDI of $1.78 billion. However, chemicals sector cornered $1.19 billion foreign equity investment in April-December 2015.

Further, the data highlighted that Singapore was on the top FDI source for India during the period. India received $10.98 billion overseas inflows from Singapore, followed by Mauritius with inflows of $6.10 billion, $3.51 billion was received from US and $2.14 billion from Netherlands, and Japan with inflows of $1.08 billion. In the calendar year 2015, FDI in India grew by 37 per cent to $39.32 billion as against $28.78 billion in the previous year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7031.45, up by 1.70 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 6982.05 and 7068.30. There were 22 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI up by 4.27%, PNB up by 3.52%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.90%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.63% and ICICI Bank up by 2.62%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 2.57%, Wipro down by 2.17%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.94%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.89% and GAIL India down by 1.87% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 258.61 points or 1.34% to 19,105.54, Nikkei 225 decreased 127.86 points or 0.79% to 16,060.55, Shanghai Composite decreased 108.39 points or 3.92% to 2,658.82, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 6.67 points or 0.4% to 1,656.77 and KOSPI Index decreased 3.5 points or 0.18% to 1,916.66, while Jakarta Composite increased 22.98 points or 0.49% to 4,756.13.