Markets add some gains in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks added some gains in the late afternoon session on the back of good progress in monsoon. Traders also took some support with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement 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. Buying in Pharmaceutical sector too aided to the trading sentiment, led by rally in Aurobindo Pharma, Glenmark and Sun Pharmaceutical after the US health regulator gave approval for antihyperlipidemic drug Rosuvastatin calcium tablets. However, gains remained capped with the report that International Monetary Fund trimmed India's growth forecast for the current and next financial years by 0.1 percentage points as it pared global growth by an identical amount.

On global front, Asian stocks were trading mostly in red on Wednesday after Oil prices fell as much 1 per cent for a second day in a row on Tuesday.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27890.50, up by 102.88 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 27759.71 and 27910.63. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.80%, while Small cap index was up by 0.78%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.93%, Oil & Gas up by 1.50%, Power up by 1.37%, PSU up by 1.18%, Metal up by 0.60% while, TECK down by 0.09%, IT down by 0.07% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 1.95%, Coal India up by 1.90%, Power Grid Corpn. up by 1.89%, HDFC Bank up by 1.46% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.36%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.68%, ICICI Bank down by 0.61%, HDFC down by 0.54%, Infosys down by 0.39% and Axis Bank down by 0.39% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has made substantial changes in the Guidelines for implementation of Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) to benefit more and more urban poor and allowing those in vulnerable vocations to form groups for availing loans at subsidised interest rates.

The changes in operation guidelines of the DAY-NULM were approved at a meeting of the National Governing Council of the mission, an inter-ministerial body chaired by Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation (MHUPA), M Venkaiah Naidu. As per the new guidelines, banks have now been allowed to directly accept applications from the beneficiaries for extending subsidized loans for setting up individual and group enterprises under the Self-Employment Programme component of DAY-NULM dispensing with the need for sponsorship by concerned urban local bodies. One bank will be designated as the Nodal Agency for each state to coordinate with all other banks to increase banking linkages for loan support under this component.

Naidu also relaxed the norms for formation of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) of urban poor by allowing up to 10 members to form a group in hilly tracts and tribal areas as against the earlier norm of 20 members. Men involved in vulnerable occupations like sanitation workers, rag pickers, rikshaw pullers are now allowed to form such Groups who would be eligible for bank loans.

Naidu further said that the performance against targets has been satisfactory but there is need for States to do more. As against the target of formation of 70,062 Self-Help Groups, actual performance has been 1,05,958. Under Self-Employment Programme component, 94,549 beneficiaries have been given subsidized bank loans for setting up individual and group enterprises against the target of 90,062. A total of 4,36,110 urban poor have been imparted skill training during the last two financial years and another 1,38,385 have so far been skilled during the current fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8563.25, up by 34.70 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 8512.55 and 8566.15. There were 33 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Aurobindo Pharma up by 3.65%, Power Grid Corpn. up by 2.13%, GAIL India up by 2.01%, Grasim Industries up by 1.89% and ACC up by 1.86%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.59%, Idea Cellular down by 0.80%, Asian Paints down by 0.64%, Hindalco down by 0.62% and Axis Bank down by 0.62% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 41.42 points or 0.25% to 16,681.89, Taiwan Weighted declined 27.19 points or 0.3% to 9,007.68, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down 5.74 points or 0.34% to 1,664.81, Shanghai Composite dropped by 2.38 points or 0.08% to 3,034.21, KOSPI Index felled 1.43 points or 0.07% to 2,015.46. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite increased 51.24 points or 0.99% to 5,224.07, Hang Seng was up 198.46 points or 0.92% to 21,871.66