Benchmarks add gains; Realty, Metal lead

Indian equity benchmarks added gains and are hovering near the highest point of the day in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments remained on firm note with Finance Minister’s statement that he will reach out to the Congress again to persuade it to support the much delayed GST bill in second half of the Budget Session beginning next month. Investors 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. Traders were seen piling up position in Realty, Metal and Bankex sector stocks. Hectic buying activity was witnessed in steel stocks after the government announced an extension of safeguard duty of up to 20% on certain steel products till March 2018, a move seen as a bid by the policymakers to guard the domestic industry against cheaper imports from China. In scrip specific development, Healthcare Global Enterprises, the cancer-care network operator, was trading under pressure after debuting today in the markets at a price lower than the issue price. The market may remain volatile today as traders may roll over positions in the Futures & Options (F&O) segment from the near month i.e. March 2016 series to next month i.e. April 2016 series. The near month March 2016 derivatives contracts will expire on Thursday i.e. March 31, 2016.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in green, while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 7,700 and 25,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1732:698 while 151 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25265.81, up by 365.35 points or 1.47% after trading in a range of 25055.42 and 25287.06. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.50%, while Small cap index up by 1.70%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.66%, Metal up by 3.01%, Bankex up by 2.66%, PSU up by 2.22%, Oil & Gas up by 2.09%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 5.73%, ICICI Bank up by 4.34%, Lupin up by 4.21%, SBI up by 3.69% and GAIL India up by 3.57%.

On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.13%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.73%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.65% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.55% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, reversing its five year old decision, which barred inoperative EPF accounts from earning interest, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the highest decision making body of the EPF organization has decided to pay interest on all such accounts from April 1. Inoperative EPF accounts are those where there have been no contributions by an employee or their employer for 36 months. The move will benefit over nine crore such account-holders having total deposits of over Rs 32,000 crore.

The interest would be paid on prospective basis. For the current year, EPFO has proposed to pay 8.8% rate of interest on provident funds for the current fiscal, up from 8.75% in the last fiscal. The finance ministry, however, is yet to notify the rate. The decision comes in the wake of a recent EPFO notification on February 25 that had restricted withdrawal of EPF accumulations. As per the notification, EPF subscribers will not be able to withdraw their provident fund after attaining the age of 54, and will have to wait until they are 57 years to withdraw. As per earlier rules, EPF subscribers were allowed to claim 90% of the corpus in their account at the age of 54.

Earlier in the year 2011, the UPA government had stopped interest on such accounts. But, the Modi government has restored it. It is a pro-worker decision, said Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya. The UPA government had discontinued interest on idle accounts in a bid to persuade employees to withdraw the money or merge it with active accounts. The EPFO has since been earning money from the funds in these accounts, which are being invested.

Out of a total of over 15 crore EPF accounts, about nine crore accounts worth Rs 32,000 crore are inoperative ,mostly belonging to people who have switched jobs but did not transfer their EPF savings.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7714.15, up by 117.15 points or 1.54% after trading in a range of 7643.45 and 7723.40. There were 44 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 5.92%, Hindalco up by 5.51%, Vedanta up by 5.42%, Bank of Baroda up by 5.06% and PNB up by 4.82%.

On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 1.48%, HDFC down by 0.99%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.97%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.59% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.48% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 3.42 points or 0.2% to 1,718.46, KOSPI Index increased 7.23 points or 0.36% to 2,002.14, Jakarta Composite increased 38.07 points or 0.8% to 4,819.37, Shanghai Composite increased 80.81 points or 2.77% to 3,000.65, Taiwan Weighted increased 119.69 points or 1.39% to 8,737.04 and Hang Seng increased 437.09 points or 2.15% to 20,803.39.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 decreased 224.57 points or 1.31% to 16,878.96.

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 81.6 points or 1.34% to 6,187.50, France’s CAC increased 66.96 points or 1.53% to 4,433.63 and Germany’s DAX increased 143.99 points or 1.46% to 10,031.93.