Markets manage to trade marginally in green in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks are managing to keep their head above water in choppy day of trade as traders opted for wait and watch strategy ahead of April F&O expiry session on Thursday and the US FOMC meet outcome due today. Market participants remained concerned with global rating agency Moody's warning to the government over the bad loan situation. The rating agency believes that rising credit profile of corporate India may pose a rating risk to the country. It has said that India faces the risk of sovereign debt levels climbing higher if economic growth isn’t robust enough and could ultimately put pressure on the government’s ability to fund itself.

On the global front, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red at this point of time, as suppliers to Apple Inc. declined and earnings from Canon Inc. disappointed investors, while fund managers awaited policy decisions from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan. Back home, stocks related to PSU space remained on buyers’ radar, as the government will sell 11.36% stake in NHPC through an offer for sale (OFS) to raise about Rs 2,700 crore in an early start to this fiscal year’s Rs 56,500-crore disinvestment programme. Shares of oil companies i.e. Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Oil India and Cairn India were trading higher by up to 4% after crude oil prices hit 2016 highs.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26049.57, up by 42.27 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 25885.24 and 26059.17. There were 17 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.50%, while Small cap index up by 0.48%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 4.03%, Oil & Gas up by 1.32%, Energy  up by 1.18%, Consumer Durables up by 0.73% and TECK up by 0.70%, while Bankex down by 0.34%, Utilities down by 0.33%, Power down by 0.28%, Finance down by 0.16% and Healthcare 0.13% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 5.16%, ONGC up by 3.87%, Adani Ports & Special up by 2.88%, Coal India up by 1.27% and Wipro up by 1.05%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.18%, ICICI Bank down by 1.99%, SBI down by 1.07%, Lupin down by 0.81% and HDFC down by 0.80% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has said that the implementation of new pay scales recommended by the 7th Pay Commission is estimated to put an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore, or 0.7 per cent of GDP, on the exchequer in 2016-17.

Giving details of financial implications of the recommendations, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha has said that the burden on pay head would increase by Rs 39,100 crore to about Rs 2.83 lakh crore in the current fiscal. Without the Pay Commission recommendations, the outgo would have been Rs 2.44 lakh crore. Sinha further said that the Dearness Allowance has no impact on the recommendations of the Pay Commission.

The outgo towards HRA will increase by Rs 17,200 crore to Rs 29,600 crore. The outgo on pension front will be Rs 1.76 lakh crore (increase of Rs 33,700 crore) and on other allowance will be Rs 36,400 crore (up Rs 12,100 crore).

The Empowered Committee of Secretaries headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha to process the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission was set up in January. The recommendations of the Pay Commission will have bearing on the remuneration of 47 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7977.10, up by 14.45 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 7940.55 and 7984.80. There were 30 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 4.61%, ONGC up by 4.01%, Bharti Infratel up by 3.64%, Adani Ports & Special up by 2.68% and Idea Cellular up by 1.74%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.13%, ICICI Bank down by 1.95%, HCL Tech down by 1.94%, Tata Power down by 1.60% and Ultratech Cement down by 1.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 113.34 points or 0.53% to 21,293.93, Nikkei 225 slipped 62.79 points or 0.36% to 17,290.49, Taiwan Weighted shed 18.52 points or 0.22% to 8,563.05, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI fell 9.14 points or 0.54% to 1,683.36, Shanghai Composite dipped 5.34 points or 0.18% to 2,959.36 and KOSPI Index was down by 4.23 points or 0.21% to 2,015.40. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 22.42 points or 0.47% to 4,836.51.