Benchmarks off day’s low; Sensex hold 24,900 mark

Indian equity benchmarks have showed decent recovery in noon deals with Sensex and Nifty recapturing their crucial 24,900 and 7,600 levels, respectively as investors went for bargain hunting. Though, markets continue to reel in red terrain as investors remained on sidelines ahead of the March series futures and options contracts expiry due on Thursday. Further, market participants are patiently waiting for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monetary policy review due on April 5 amid hopes of a 25 basis points cut in interest rates. However, losses remained capped on report that foreign institutional investors’ (FII) inflow in the Indian market so far this month is the highest single-month investment since May 2013. FIIs have put in Rs 18,437 crore thus far in the Indian market during the current month till March 23, 2016.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red at this point of time after downbeat US economic data contributed to an uninspiring session on Wall Street. Investors awaited Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's speech at 1620 GMT for fresh signals on the outlook for US interest rate hikes, after a chorus of hawkish comments from other Fed officials. Back home, Pharma stocks continued to remain under pressure for yet another day amid observations from the US FDA and the recent ban on over 300 combination drugs by the government. The market breadth remained in the favour of decliners, as there were 781 shares on the gaining side against 1,489 shares on the losing side while 143 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24924.05, down by 42.35 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 24835.56 and 25053.73. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.25%, while Small cap index down by 0.47%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.82%, Metal up by 0.78%, Auto up by 0.75%, Bankex up by 0.47% and Realty up by 0.37%, while Healthcare down by 3.02%, Capital Goods down by 0.75%, TECK down by 0.20%, IT down by 0.18% and FMCG down by 0.18% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.55%, Tata Steel up by 1.98%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.66%, Reliance Industries up by 1.22% and Axis Bank up by 1.16%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 8.91%, Sun Pharma down by 3.08%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.63%, GAIL India down by 2.39% and Cipla down by 1.61% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has notified the new Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, benefits and services) Act, 2016 which gives the numbers assigned by it a statutory backing for transfer of subsidies and benefits to people eligible for them. The Aadhaar Bill for this act was approved by Parliament on March 16. It was tabled in Parliament as money bill. The act will be used for all benefit that will be linked to consolidated fund of India. 

Government in its notification has said that the new Aadhaar Act will provide for efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and services, the expenditure for which is incurred from the Consolidated Fund of India, to individuals residing in India through assigning of unique identity numbers to such individuals. It has provision that both centre and state government can use Aadhaar for disbursal for benefits and subsidies.  The Act provides for statutory backing to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) by providing for establishment of the UIDAI consisting of a Chairperson (part time or full time) and two Members (part time).

However, those individuals to whom Aadhaar number has not been assigned, the Act said that they shall be offered alternate and viable means of identification for delivery of the subsidy, benefit or service. Furthermore, the  Authority shall take special measures to issue Aadhaar number to women, children, senior citizens, persons with disability, unskilled and unorganized workers, nomadic tribes or to such other persons who do not have any permanent dwelling house and such other categories of individuals as may be specified by regulations.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7606.35, down by 8.75 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 7582.25 and 7645.80. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.53%, Hindalco up by 2.46%, Tata Steel up by 2.32%, Idea Cellular up by 1.80% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.73%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 9.23%, Sun Pharma down by 2.95%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.72%, GAIL India down by 2.43% and Cipla down by 1.62% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted decreased 73.1 points or 0.84% to 8,617.35, Shanghai Composite declined 48.63 points or 1.64% to 2,909.19, Hang Seng slipped 48.23 points or 0.24% to 20,297.38 and Nikkei 225 was down by 30.84 points or 0.18% to 17,103.53.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite rose 3.96 points or 0.08% to 4,777.59, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 10.22 points or 0.6% to 1,712.63 and KOSPI Index was up by 12.37 points or 0.62% to 1,994.91.