Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks are trading in fine fettle in noon deals as investors opted to buy beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks after yesterday’s drubbing. However, gains remained capped as traders remained cautious ahead of industrial production data for April, slated to be released later in the day. Weakness in Asian counterparts too was restricting up-side in domestic markets. Asian markets were trading lower as investors sought refuge in safe-haven assets amid festering concerns over the 23 June 2016 referendum that could see Britain exit the European Union. Back home, on the sectoral front, banking stocks remained on buyers’ radar after Moody’s said that the government will have to infuse Rs 1.2 lakh crore into PSU banks by 2020 to bolster their balance sheets and make good the losses suffered by them. Sugar stocks too remained in limelight after food minister Ram Vilas Paswan reportedly said that India plans to impose a 25% tax on sugar exports to maintain adequate supplies of the sweetener in the local market. Shares of logistics companies also extended gains for the fourth straight session on hopes of clearance of the goods and services tax (GST) Bill in the upper house of the Parliament.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26902.39, up by 138.93 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 26683.08 and 26972.06. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.42%, while Small cap index up by 0.67%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.32%, Utilities up by 1.06%, Metal up by 0.89%, Capital Goods up by 0.83% and FMCG up by 0.68%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.26%, Lupin up by 1.50%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.44%, NTPC up by 1.23% and Adani Ports &Special up by 1.14%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 0.57%, Asian Paints down by 0.47% and Tata Steel down by 0.25% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to enable investors to co-invest in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), the government may tweak the investment norms in this sovereign wealth fund, as well as in the individual projects. Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das has said that the norms would be tweaked within the broad framework of the investment to take into account suggestions from the domestic and overseas investors.

Das said that the government was earlier considering NIIF to be the mother fund under which there would be several sub-funds, but after interaction with investors from within and abroad we realised that there is equal amount of interest, perhaps greater interest to co-invest in individual projects. He further added that “we found that the investment pattern of NIIF, which we had in mind originally, required some amount of tweaking within the broad framework.”

The Economic Affairs Secretary also stated that the government is now in discussion with various investors and they will co invest in individual infrastructure projects and also invest in the mother fund. He further said that while co-investment in individual projects is important, it is also important that the investors come into the mother fund because there government equity will be only 49 per cent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8244.95, up by 41.35 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 8179.05 and 8265.60. There were 43 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 3.26%, Hindalco up by 2.93%, Yes Bank up by 2.43%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.71% and Lupin up by 1.59%. On the flip side, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.39%, Tata Motors down by 0.72%, Tata Steel down by 0.45%, Asian Paints down by 0.38% and Aurobindo Pharma down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 147.86 points or 0.69% to 21,150.02, Nikkei 225 slipped 67.05 points or 0.4% to 16,601.36, Jakarta Composite dipped 15.63 points or 0.32% to 4,861.16, KOSPI Index shed 6.54 points or 0.32% to 2,017.63 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 5.32 points or 0.32% to 1,645.19.