Markets continue to trade in high spirit in noon deal

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade in high spirit in noon session, on account of broad based buying in blue chip counters. Sentiments remained buoyant after Cabinet approved changes in the GST Constitutional Amendment bill providing for full compensation to states for first five years of roll out of the new indirect tax regime. Some support also came after the government raised the foreign shareholding limit in Indian stock exchanges from 5% to 15%, allowing overseas banks, insurers, stock and commodity exchanges and depositories to hold up to 15% stake in Indian stock exchanges. Local bourses were trading near intraday high level, with Sensex recapturing its crucial 28,100 level. Meanwhile, broader indices too were trading higher with gains of over a half percent.

On the global front, Asian stock markets are mostly lower on Thursday as investors digested an upbeat Fed assessment of the US economy that raised the prospect of further rate hikes, though they anticipate more stimulus from Japan.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28129.41, up by 105.08 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 28064.90 and 28144.32. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.86%, while Small cap index was up by 0.93%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.72%, Realty up by 1.04%, Power up by 0.83%, FMCG up by 0.72%, PSU up by 0.56% while, Metal down by 0.22%, Capital Goods down by 0.18%, IT down by 0.12% and Oil & Gas down by 0.01% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 6.47%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.25%, SBI up by 2.34%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.57% and Power Grid Corpn. up by 1.48%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.19%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.01%, Tata Motors down by 0.85%, Axis Bank down by 0.85% and Infosys down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, government has dropped the plan to create three funds for telecom R&D, manufacturing, with a total corpus of Rs 17,500 crore, it was a proposal by the Working Group for Telecom Sector in the 12th Plan for promoting research and development and manufacturing of telecom equipments in the country, as it can be covered under the Electronic Development Fund (EDF).

Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha stated that since the EDF would also take care of R&D and manufacturing of telecom products, the proposal to set up three separate funds was dropped. Earlier, the Cabinet on December 10, 2014 approved a proposal of Department of Electronics and IT to establish an EDF. The EDF is a venture capital fund in the nature of ‘fund of funds’ to participate in professionally managed ‘daughter funds’. Sinha further said that setting up of EDF is one of the important strategies which would enable creating a vibrant ecosystem of innovation and research and development.

The daughter funds will provide risk capital to companies developing new technologies in the area of electronics, including telecommunications, nano-electronics and information technology. Out of total funds, the panel proposed a Telecom Manufacturing Promotion Fund of Rs 10,000 crore, Telecom Entrepreneurship Promotion Fund of Rs 2,500 crore and Telecom Research Development Fund of Rs 5,000 crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8649.60, up by 33.80 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 8626.35 and 8651.00. There were 31 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 6.65%, Bharti Infratel up by 4.61%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.17%, Eicher Motors up by 2.51% and Yes Bank up by 2.00%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.47%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.12%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.48%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.07% and Axis Bank down by 1.06% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 187.98 points or 1.13% to 16,476.84, Hang Seng declined 74.02 points or 0.33% to 22,144.97, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down 7.85 points or 0.47% to 1,655.71, KOSPI Index dropped 3.95 points or 0.2% to 2,021.10, Jakarta Composite fell 3.39 points or 0.06% to 5,270.97. On other hand, Shanghai Composite increased 0.53 points or 0.02% to 2,992.52, Taiwan Weighted was up 13.25 points or 0.15% to 9,076.64