Benchmarks pare some gains in late morning session

After starting the day on a firm note, Indian equity benchmarks though have pared some gains in last hour of trade, are still trading in the green with significant gains at this point of time. Sentiments got a boost after the US Federal Reserve (US Fed) kept key rates unchanged and brought down the anticipated hikes in 2016 to two from its earlier December 2015 forecast of four. Emerging markets, including India, should rejoice as fears of massive exodus of foreign capital should abate with a more modest increase in the US rate trajectory expected over the medium-term. Gains were visible across Asian markets with the Nikkei 225, Straits Times, KOSPI, Taiwan Weighted, Shanghai Composite and the Hang Seng rallied between 0.5% - 1%. Back home, market participants rejoiced with a productive first half of legislative business with many crucial economic bills like Real Estate bill and Aadhar being passed by the Parliament. It rekindles hope of passage of other pending bills like Bankruptcy Bill, Amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act and even GST.

Some support also came with report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) pumped nearly $2 billion in Indian markets, as compared to a withdrawal of nearly $3 billion in the first two months of calendar year 2016. Meanwhile, shares of oil marketing companies (OMCs) such as BPCL, IOC and HPCL rallied after the petrol and diesel prices were hiked on March 16, 2016, while banking shares surged on expectation that the RBI may cut the policy rate any time between now and a scheduled monetary policy review on April 5.  In scrip specific development, Shares of IRB Infrastructure gained after the company announced that capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has registered its infrastructure investment trust IRB InvIT Fund. Moreover, Tata Motors gained after the company bagged order for supply of 25 Starbus diesel series hybrid electric buses from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2112 stocks traded, 1344 stocks advanced, while 656 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24839.75, up by 157.27 points or 0.64% after trading in a range of 24802.44 and 24948.30. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.80%, while Small cap index up by 0.58%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.33%, PSU up by 1.40%, Metal up by 1.25%, TECK up by 1.01% and Capital Goods up by 0.94%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral indices.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports &Special up by 2.70%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.58%, GAIL India up by 2.53%, ICICI Bank up by 1.94% and ONGC up by 1.79%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.11%, Sun Pharma down by 1.21%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.60% and Cipla down by 0.50% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, making a strong case for removal of cess and surcharge of various types, Industry body Assocham has urged finance ministry for a clear road-map for reduction of corporate tax to 25%. The industry body stated that the surcharge and education cess were originally introduced for a short period of time but are being continued from year to year, which have pushed up the overall tax rate to over 34% and sought a time schedule for withdrawal of the surcharge and education cess as it would help in giving more funds to the corporate sector for investment and growth and also generate confidence and certainty. This in turn will result in overall buoyancy in the national economy. A clear road map will enable businesses to evaluate availability of funds for capital investments

With a view to help start-ups, Assocham stated that the reduced tax rate of 25% should also be made applicable for all companies and not only to manufacturing companies. This will provide a boost to the 'Start-up India' initiative and will bring newly set-up manufacturing companies as well as non-manufacturing companies on an equal footing as far as tax rates are concerned.

In the budget 2015-16, the government had announced that tax benefits, exemptions will be withdrawn and simultaneously, basic corporate tax rate will be reduced from 30% to 25% over a period of four years. Nevertheless, in this year's Budget, a road map has been given for withdrawal of various tax benefits/ exemptions but time plan for reduction of corporate tax rates were not announced.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7552.30, up by 53.55 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 7541.95 and 7585.30. There were 44 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 5.56% and Ambuja Cement up by 3.37% and Bharti Airtel up by 2.90% and Vedanta up by 2.67% and GAIL India up by 2.63%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.11%, Sun Pharma down by 1.17%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.60%, Indusind Bank down by 0.33% and Cipla down by 0.13% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 0.65%, Shanghai Composite up by 0.74%, KOSPI Index up by 0.86%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.32%, Taiwan Weighted increased up by 0.38%, Nikkei 225 up by 0.58% and Hang Seng was up by 1.1%.