Benchmarks turn flat ahead of US jobs data

After making positive start, Indian equity benchmarks have turned flat and are trading near neutral lines in early deals, as traders remained on sidelines ahead of US non-farm payrolls data, which will be released later today. Trade also get impacted and essential services such as banking, public transport and telecom are likely to be hit as 10 central trade unions (CTUs) will go on one-day nationwide strike against government's “indifference” towards their demands and effecting “anti-worker” changes in labour laws. However, traders taking some encouragement with report that Odisha becoming the 16th state to ratify the constitutional amendment bill passed by Parliament to introduce the goods and services tax (GST), helping cross the important threshold of more than half the number of states needed for the proposed law to be sent for presidential assent.

Asian markets were exhibiting mixed trend at this point of time, the Chinese markets were trading higher and with all eyes are on the non-farm payrolls data from US. Back home, FMCG stocks remained on buyers’ radar, as Niti Aayog member Amitabh Kant has said that the government is in favour of framing a single policy for retail, FMCG and e-commerce to harmonize the existing varied policies. Sugar stocks too were trading with traction despite the government imposing stock limits on sugar mills during the festival season till October-end. However, telecom stocks remained under pressure with price war back in space after the official launch of Reliance Industries RJio.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28441.90, up by 18.42 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 28428.35 and 28525.87. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.20%, while Small cap index was up by 0.39%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.94%, Consumer Durables up by 0.60%, Industrials up by 0.55%, Auto up by 0.47% and Finance was up by 0.45%, while Energy down by 0.90%, Metal down by 0.80%, Oil & Gas down by 0.57%, PSU down by 0.32% and IT was down by 0.23% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.85%, Adani Ports &Special up by 1.47%, Lupin up by 1.16%, HDFC up by 0.86% and ICICI Bank up by 0.80%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 2.02%, Coal India down by 1.67%, Reliance Industries down by 1.31%, GAIL India down by 0.77% and Cipla down by 0.75% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the retail prices of most pulses are still ruling high across the country even as the wholesale prices have started showing declining trend and the government is hopeful of them coming down further. Food minister Ram Vilas Paswan has said that wholesale prices of pulses are gradually falling and its impact will be reflected soon in retail markets as hoarders cannot hold the stock for long with arrival of new crop from next month. Further he said there will be bumper crop this year and government have also tied up with many countries for imports of pulses.

Paswan added that buoyed by higher minimum support price (MSP), farmers have grown pulses in more area this year and good monsoon has boosted prospects of bumper harvest of lentils. With sharp fall in wholesale rate of moong (green gram) in some parts of the country, farmers have demanded the government for procurement of lentils at the MSP. Further, the government is expecting pulses production to be at 20 million tonnes in the 2016-17 crop year (July-June), much higher than 16.47 million tonnes last year.

As per the government data, tur dal is available at Rs 170/kg, urad at Rs 175/kg, moong at Rs 130/kg, gram at Rs 120/kg and masoor dal at Rs 115/kg in retail markets. Whereas the average wholesale prices for tur dal is Rs 103/kg and urad is Rs 128/kg.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8773.60, down by 1.05 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 8770.10 and 8798.45. There were 23 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 1.98%, Adani Ports & Special up by 1.66%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.42%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 1.20% and Lupin up by 1.17%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 2.93%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.96%, Coal India down by 1.73%, Reliance Industries down by 1.42% and Cipla down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite rose 2.21 points or 0.07% to 3,065.52, KOSPI Index increased 4.64 points or 0.23% to 2,037.36, Jakarta Composite added 15.05 points or 0.28% to 5,349.59 and Hang Seng was up by 81.53 points or 0.35% to 23,243.87. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 72.51 points or 0.43% to 16,854.33, Taiwan Weighted shed 21.39 points or 0.24% to 8,979.76 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.01 points or 0.06% to 1,669.54.