Markets gyrate in tight band with shade of green; broader indices outperform

Domestic markets are trading in a very tight range as traders opted to stay away in buying risky assets ahead of industrial production data for April due later this week. However, broader indices were outperforming larger peers and were trading with a gain of around half a percent in noon deals. Market participants took some encouragement with IMD declaring the arrival of Southwest Monsoon 2016 over Kerala. Though parts of Kerala had been receiving good rains since past few days, certain criteria important for the declaration of Onset were not met. On the sectoral front, telecom stocks rang loud on reports the Telecom Commission has lowered the annual spectrum usage fee to 3% of revenue for all bands in the upcoming spectrum auction scheduled in July. Shares of logistics companies moved higher in noon deal on hopes of clearance of the crucial Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in the upper house of the Parliament.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27039.86, up by 30.19 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 26997.42 and 27105.41. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.38%, while Small cap index up by 0.83%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.27%, Capital Goods up by 1.12%, Power up by 1.04%, Industrials up by 0.97% and Realty up by 0.56%, while IT down by 0.47%, TECK down by 0.32% and Metal down by 0.16% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 1.80%, ICICI Bank up by 1.73%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.60%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.32% and ONGC up by 1.29%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.20%, Infosys down by 1.05%, Coal India down by 0.83%, TCS down by 0.74% and HDFC Bank down by 0.70% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Empowered Committee of Secretaries is all set to meet this weekend to give final view to the recommendations that will impact the wages of lakhs of government employees, who are anxiously waiting for the implementation of the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission.

The Empowered Committee of Secretaries led by Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha will meet on June 11 to make the final changes to the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations. The secretaries group has recommended between Rs 2,70,000 and Rs 21,000 hike for the higher and the lower level respectively. This is 20000 more in the upper limit and 3000 more in the lower level prescribed by the 7th CPC.

Earlier, the 7th pay commission had recommended around 23% rise in salaries of the central government employees. The government will have to shell out additional Rs 1 lakh crore on account of increase in salaries, allowances and pensions.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8271.40, up by 4.95 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 8256.45 and 8288.90. There were 29 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bank of Baroda up by 2.48%, BHEL up by 1.97%, HCL Tech up by 1.91%, ICICI Bank up by 1.73% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.62%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 1.86%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.69%, Asian Paints down by 1.35%, Infosys down by 1.17% and Yes Bank down by 1.07% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased marginally by 0.07 points to 2,936.12, KOSPI Index gained 15.45 points or 0.77% to 2,027.08, Taiwan Weighted rose 35.58 points or 0.41% to 8,715.48 and Nikkei 225 was up by 155.47 points or 0.93% to 16,830.92. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 24.17 points or 0.49% to 4,909.82, Hang Seng slipped 22.25 points or 0.1% to 21,305.99 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 6.81 points or 0.41% to 1,653.81.