Benchmarks trade flat in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks have turned flat in afternoon session on Tuesday; market retreated a bit due to some profit taking at selected blue chip counters. However, loss remain capped with the minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal’s statement that Government is working overtime to build a consensus on the long-pending Goods and Services Tax bill with the hope of getting it passed during the ongoing Parliament session. On the sectoral front Metal sector was leading with over a half percent gains. Jindal Steel, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Hindustan Zinc, SAIL and NMDC were the top gainers among the metal stocks. Consumer Durables, IT, TECK were showing some support too, while Auto was top sectoral loser on indices. In scrip specific development, Amtek Auto surged as much as 17 per cent with the report that the cash-strapped auto-component maker is planning sale of more overseas assets to reduce debt.

On global front, Asia markets trading mostly in green ahead of central bank meetings in the United States and Japan, while a fresh skid in oil dampened energy stocks on Wall Street.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28125.79, up by 30.45 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 28058.31 and 28141.49. There were 15 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.62%, while Small cap index added by 0.38%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.84%, Consumer Durables up by 0.70%, IT up by 0.41%, TECK up by 0.35%, Oil & Gas up by 0.19% while, Auto down by 0.18% was the losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.61%, Axis Bank up by 2.17%, Reliance Industries up by 1.27%, Wipro up by 0.84% and Cipla up by 0.78%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.09%, Lupin down by 1.00%, Coal India down by 0.84%, Asian Paints down by 0.83% and ICICI Bank down by 0.80% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, to boost the road sector, government has planned to spend Rs 7 lakh crore to develop around 50,000 kilometres of national highways over the next five years. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that during the current financial year, the government has set a target of constructing 10,000 kilometres of greenfield highways, for which a budgetary allocation of Rs 46,834 crores has been made including cess and toll remittance for 2016-17.In addition, internal and extra budgetary resources of Rs 59.279 crores have also been allowed to be raised for highways in 2016-17.

The country at present has 96,000 km of national highways, which the Ministry wants to expand to 1,50,000 km over this period. The Minister noted that it was necessary to bring down the cost of construction and the government was taking various initiatives to ensure India becomes competitive globally. He added that the ministry was studying the construction codes of countries like US and Germany and create a code for India which will help reduce the cost of construction by almost 15-20 per cent.

Initially government has set a target of constructing Rs 5 lakh crore worth projects in five years. But considering the pace at which India is progressing, Gadkari said that there is a proposal to spend around Rs 7 lakh crores to develop National Highways of around 50,000 kilometres in the next five years. Acknowledging that road safety is a big problem in India, minister had earlier said that safe roads are of the highest priority for the government and that the US had assured full co-operation in meeting the challenge. The United States has promised technical help for the construction of roads, bridges, flyovers and also shares expertise in road safety and traffic management.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8637.20, up by 1.55 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 8620.45 and 8643.95. There were 27 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 2.68%, Axis Bank up by 2.27%, Yes Bank up by 1.48%,ACC up by 1.25% and Ambuja Cement up by 1.12%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 1.29%, Coal India down by 1.17%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.13%, Asian Paints down by 1.03% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.03% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading most in green, KOSPI Index increased 15.02 points or 0.75% to 2,027.34, Shanghai Composite jumped 27.9 points or 0.93% to 3,043.73, Taiwan Weighted surged 33.12 points or 0.37% to 9,024.79, Hang Seng increased 240.24 points or 1.09% to 22,233.68. On flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 237.25 points or 1.43% to 16,383.04, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI down 4.42 points or 0.26% to 1,663.84, Jakarta Composite declined 0.02 points or 0% to 5,220.78