Benchmarks strengthen further in the early noon session

Indian equity markets strengthened further in the early noon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Market participants got some comfort with the reports that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet his counterparts in states to discuss proposed amendments to the GST Bill on Tuesday, with the likely listing of GST Bill in Rajya Sabha this week. However, investors remained cautious about International Monetary Fund (IMF) listing out as many as six core areas that need further reforms in India. These are product market, labour, infrastructure, banking, legal system and property rights, and fiscal structural reforms. In scrip specific development, Alok Industries rose 7 per cent amid reports that a consortium of lender led by SBI is considering restructuring of its debt under the scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed assets (S4A).

On the global front, Asian market held near nine-month high on Monday as worries over the impact of Britain's Brexit vote eased, while the dollar was buoyed by a run of solid US economic data.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27926.30, up by 123.06 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 27736.51 and 27942.81. 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 0.67%, while Small cap index added 0.99%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 1.54%, Oil & Gas up by 1.39%, Realty up by 1.06%, Consumer Durables up by 0.80% and Power up by 0.75%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 1.77%, HDFC up by 1.60%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.46%, ICICI Bank up by 1.35% and ONGC up by 1.01%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 3.10%, Axis Bank down by 1.45%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.76%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.35% and Reliance Industries down by 0.18% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, concerned over the rising inflation, the government has asked the states to remove all kinds of local taxes that are levied on essential food items like pulses and edible oils. The move is aimed at ensuring there is adequate availability of pulses, edible oils and other essential food items, and that they are priced reasonably.

Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has written a letter to Chief Secretaries of the States and has asked to take up the market intervention on a real time basis and to review Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Acts on priority to delist pulses and other essential food items so that farmers can sell their produce at any place of their choice, minimising stages of supply chain from farm gate to ultimate consumers. This will provide reasonable prices for consumers and also fetch better prices for farmers.

Consumer Affairs Secretary Hem Pande has invited the attention of States towards the action plan adopted for this purpose in the States Food Ministers meeting held in May earlier this year and requested them to consider a pricing policy for pulses and such other essential food items under the Section 3(2) (c) of the Essential Commodities (EC) Act and to make it enforceable for all the stake holders to cap the prices of essential commodities.

Besides, in order to enhance availability and check prices of essential, the Secretary has also asked the states to implement the Price Stabilisation Fund Scheme for market intervention. For successful functioning of the scheme, adequate and timely lifting of pulses from buffer stock is a pre-requisite besides strengthening storage facilities for pulses, vegetables edible oils seeds, Onions.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8577.80, up by 36.60 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 8517.20 and 8584.45. There were 35 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 2.20%, BHEL up by 2.02%, Bank Of Baroda up by 1.99%, BPCL up by 1.95% and SBI up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.92%, Axis Bank down by 1.47%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.78%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.76% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.35% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, KOSPI Index increased 0.68 points or 0.03% to 2,011.02, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.89 points or 0.17% to 1,660.31, Nikkei 225 increased 5.48 points or 0.03% to 16,632.73 and Jakarta Composite increased 22.77 points or 0.44% to 5,220.02. On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 39.1 points or 0.18% to 21,925.17, Taiwan Weighted decreased 21.47 points or 0.24% to 8,991.67 and Shanghai Composite decreased 1.92 points or 0.06% to 3,010.90.