Benchmarks trade flat in early deals

Indian equity markets are trading flat in positive territory, in early deals on Monday. Traders were getting encouragement with the Met department’s latest report, stating that the conditions continue to remain favourable for the onset of the southwest monsoon over Kerala over the next 2-3 days. The sentiments were further supported by Indian rupee appreciation by 39 paise to 66.86 against US dollar after the American currency plunged to its lowest in over three weeks, after an unambiguously weak US jobs data prompted investors to rule out the chance of a hike in US interest rates this month. Friday's data in US showed nonfarm payrolls increased by only 38,000 jobs last month - the fewest in more than 5-1/2-years - confounding forecasts for a rise of 164,000 jobs. Besides, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,585.01 crore on Friday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges that kept supporting sentiments. However, upside remained capped as a survey from industry body, CII said that government needs to speed up implementation of GST, address the issue of cheap imports and improve investment climate as majority of sectors are witnessing ‘moderate’ growth. Meanwhile, caution enveloped the markets ahead of the RBI's bi-monthly monetary policy review due tomorrow.

In the scrip specific development, Jubilant Life Sciences surged 5 per cent on the BSE after the company received final approval from the US health regulator for generic Levetiracetam injection, used for treatment of epilepsy, in the American market.

On the global front, US markets ended lower as investors weighed implications of a dismal jobs report on the Federal Reserve monetary policy decision in two weeks. Asian markets were mostly trading in red with Nikkei down over 1 per cent on the back of strong yen.

Back home, traders were seen piling up position in Realty, Capital Goods, Banking and Consumer Durables, while selling was witnessed in Metal, TECK, Power, IT and Oil & Gas. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 847: 686 while 71scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26861.36, up by 18.33 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 26843.09 and 26901.42. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.18%, while Small cap index was up by 0.15%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.79%, Capital Goods up by 0.31%, Bankex up by 0.12% and Consumer Durables up by 0.06%, while Metal down by 0.80%, TECK down by 0.35%, Power down by 0.15%, IT down by 0.12% and Oil & Gas down by 0.08% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.81%, SBI up by 0.97%, Cipla up by 0.86%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 0.78% and GAIL India up by 0.69%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 3.65%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.97%, Tata Steel down by 1.70%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.57% and Coal India down by 1.17% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Industry body, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which has recently said that if the predictions of above-normal monsoon turn out to be true, India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth could easily cross the 8 per cent-mark in FY17, in its latest survey has cautioned that government needs to speed up implementation of GST, address the issue of cheap imports and improve investment climate as majority of sectors are witnessing ‘moderate’ growth.

The industry body in its survey findings stated that overall, the current trends reveal that majority of the sectors are continuing to witness “moderate” growth rates (0 to 10 per cent) with “excellent” (above 20 per cent) and “high” (10-20 per cent) growth limited only to few sectors, there has been a sharp decline in the share of sectors registering “low” growth (below 0 per cent). Out of the 102 sectors surveyed including crude oil, cement and natural gas, the share of sectors registering 'excellent' growth remained constant during the fourth quarter of 2015-16. The survey which tracks the growth of economic sectors on a quarterly basis, also stressed on the quick implementation of the announcements in the budget especially in the infrastructure space, boosting export competitiveness and addressing the issue of delayed payments.

Though, it also said that a decline in the share of sectors registering ‘low’ growth is clearly an indication towards the bottoming out of growth trends in the majority of sectors and going forward, on the back of the various measures and structural reforms taken by the government, it is expected that the current momentum would be supportive of the revival becoming broad based in the coming quarters.

The survey also said that to support the 'Make in India' initiative, there is a need to strengthen anti-dumping laws to protect local manufacturing and provide subsidies on production of major raw materials of key export products to make them cost competitive. The Survey respondents have emphasized that coupled with sustaining the reforms agenda, particularly ensuring quicker progress on reforms such as the GST Bill and Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Amendment Bill, 2015, will impart greater certainty to investors on the policy front.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8220.85, up by 0.05 points or 0.00% after trading in a range of 8217.70 and 8234.70. There were 22 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.91%, SBI up by 0.97%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 0.90%, Cipla up by 0.82% and Sun Pharma Inds. up by 0.70%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 3.98%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.54%, BPCL down by 1.63%, Tata Steel down by 1.37% and Coal India down by 1.29% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Nikkei 225 decreased 189.28 points or 1.14% to 16,452.95, Hang Seng decreased 37.27 points or 0.18% to 20,909.97, Taiwan Weighted decreased 9.02 points or 0.1% to 8,582.55 and Shanghai Composite decreased 1.29 points or 0.04% to 2,937.39.

On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 9.66 points or 0.59% to 1,646.12, Jakarta Composite increased 27.54 points or 0.57% to 4,881.46,