Benchmarks languish into red in noon deals

Indian equity benchmark, after paring almost all of their losses, once again languished into red terrain with frontline gauges breaching their crucial 25,600 (Sensex) and 7,850 (Nifty) levels. Sentiments remained downbeat after India and Mauritius agreed to amend a three-decade old treaty thereby imposing capital gains tax on investments routed through Mauritius from next fiscal onwards. Besides, depreciation in Indian rupee dampened sentiments. The rupee depreciated by 5 paise to 66.72 against the US dollar in noon deals on increased demand for the greenback from importers amid appreciation in the American currency overseas.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green at this point of time after solid corporate earnings sparked a rally in global equities while the yen struggled amid intervention warnings from Tokyo in the wake of the currency's rapid rise. Back home, telecom stocks took U-turn to trade water despite the Supreme Court striking down an order by the country’s top telecom regulatory body mandating mobile service providers to compensate subscribers for call drops, calling it ‘arbitrary, unreasonable and non-transparent’.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25587.10, down by 185.43 points or 0.72% after trading in a range of 25409.24 and 25762.49. There were 4 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.16%, while Small cap index up by 0.07%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Basic Materials up by 0.47%, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services up by 0.21% and Bankex up by 0.14%, while Telecom down by 1.03%, Realty down by 0.90%, Oil & Gas down by 0.85%, Consumer Durables down by 0.66% and PSU down by 0.63% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 1.67%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.84%, Asian Paints up by 0.68%, NTPC up by 0.60% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.20%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.77%, ITC down by 1.55%, BHEL down by 1.44%, ONGC down by 1.20% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.15% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chaired a review meeting on the progress of Aadhaar and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) programmes. The government is estimated to have saved over Rs 27,000 crore by cash transfers for payments to beneficiaries under various welfare schemes in the last two years.  In 2015-16, fund transfers worth Rs 61,000 crore was done through DBT to over 30 crore beneficiaries. This includes over Rs 25,000 crore in MGNREGS and over Rs 21,000 crore in PAHAL (for cooking gas).

Further,over 1.6 crore bogus ration cards have been deleted, resulting in savings of about Rs 10,000 crore. Similarly, 3.5 crore duplicate beneficiaries were weeded out in the PAHAL scheme, resulting in savings of over Rs 14,000 crore in 2014-15 alone. Moreover, in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) too, a saving of Rs 3,000 crore (roughly 10 per cent) has been estimated in 2015-16. Besides, Several States and Union Territories too have achieved significant savings through DBT. Meanwhile, the government is now also working on a unique identifier for non government organisations (NGOs). Over 71,000 NGOs are now registered with the NGO Darpan portal maintained by NITI Aayog.

In order to ensure that the targeted beneficiaries receive their benefits well in time, the Prime Minister emphasized the importance of creating a platform that is error-free. He also cautioned that beneficiaries should not be inconvenienced in the implementation of DBT and Aadhaar for various schemes. Further, he said that the officials must test their systems carefully before rolling them out on a large scale.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7846.75, down by 41.05 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 7780.90 and 7893.10. There were 14 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 6.43%, Hindalco up by 2.50%, Axis Bank up by 1.64%, Grasim Industries up by 1.17% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.10%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.70%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.64%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.57%, BPCL down by 1.55% and ITC down by 1.55% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 3.84 points or 0.23% to 1,639.68, Nikkei 225 rose 13.82 points or 0.08% to 16,579.01, Shanghai Composite gained 14.1 points or 0.5% to 2,846.69 and Jakarta Composite was up by 29.2 points or 0.61% to 4,792.31.

On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 108.7 points or 0.54% to 20,133.98, Taiwan Weighted shed 20.73 points or 0.25% to 8,135.56 and KOSPI Index was down by 2.4 points or 0.12% to 1,980.10.