Benchmarks continue to trade positively in early noon trade

Indian equity markets continued to trade with good gains in early noon trade on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters, tracking mixed Asian cues. Besides, good progress in monsoon influenced trading sentiment. Some support also came with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley urging the Rajya Sabha to pass the GST bill expeditiously, to enable states get a share of the Service Tax which is not shared under the provisions of 14th Finance Commission. However, gains remained capped with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowering India’s economic growth projections by 0.1 percentage points to 7.4 per cent each for the current financial year and 2017-18 due to a slower investment revival than expected earlier. It has also lowered global economic growth by 0.1 percentage points each for 2016 and 2017 to 3.1 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively, on Brexit impact. In scrip specific development, Auto component manufacturer JBM Auto soared nearly 9 per cent in trade after the company announced its plans to develop and manufacture electric and hybrid buses in India.

On the global front, Asian stocks were trading mixed after a record run on Wall Street, showed signs of petering out.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27864.37, up by 76.75 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 27759.71 and 27908.22. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.69%, while Small cap index added 0.67%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.51%, Oil & Gas up by 1.41%, Power up by 1.06%, PSU up by 1.02% and Metal up by 0.82%, while TECK down by 0.21%, IT down by 0.17%, and Consumer Durables down by 0.05% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 2.13%, Power Grid Corpn. up by 1.71%, Coal India up by 1.50%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.50% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.32%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.26%, ICICI Bank down by 0.61%, HDFC down by 0.61%, Axis Bank down by 0.51% and Infosys down by 0.48% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing his hopes for the passage of the GST bill in the parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the GST bill should be passed in the Rajya Sabha as early as possible. He said, the earlier the GST is passed, the better it is for states so that they get a share in the Service Tax” which is not included in the provisions of 14th Finance Commission.

As per the 14th Finance Commission, service tax is not shared with states. The Finance Minister added that the 14th Finance Commission heard out states and on the basis of their financial health, decided the criteria based on the demographic profile, population and income inequality, with a new criteria of forest cover being added this time. On some schemes where some states have suffered, the Centre had constituted a committee of chief ministers who recommended that some schemes should be fully sponsored by the Centre and some others be adopted by the states.

Jaitley is counting on support of regional parties for passage for the Constitutional Amendment Bill on GST, is meeting visiting various states to get their support.  The government has agreed to a five hour debate on the GST bill in the Rajya Sabha and is keen to get the law passed during the current Monsoon Session of Parliament that ends on August 12. The GST Bill, which will help create a single national sales tax to replace several state and central levies, has already been approved by the Lok Sabha and is pending in the Upper House. Once the Parliament approves the constitutional amendment to allow GST, it needs to be ratified by more than half of the states. Then, Parliament must pass another Bill to implement GST.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8550.90, up by 22.35 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 8512.55 and 8559.50. There were 36 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Aurobindo Pharma up by 3.81%, GAIL India up by 2.09%, Power Grid Corpn. up by 1.98%, ACC up by 1.65% and Coal India up by 1.60%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.05%, HCL Tech. down by 1.04%, ICICI Bank down by 0.80%, Axis Bank down by 0.73% and Asian Paints down by 0.62% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Jakarta Composite increased 41.4 points or 0.8% to 5,214.23 and Hang Seng increased 172.82 points or 0.8% to 21,846.02. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 47.45 points or 0.28% to 16,675.86, Taiwan Weighted decreased 27.19 points or 0.3% to 9,007.68, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 6.17 points or 0.37% to 1,664.38, KOSPI Index decreased 3.55 points or 0.18% to 2,013.34 and Shanghai Composite decreased 2.11 points or 0.07% to 3,034.49.