Benchmarks make gap-up opening on series expiry day

Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on F&O series expiry day. Sentiments remained up-beat with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement, who reacting to 32-point jump on World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index in two years, has said that it shows India has covered a long distance and is well on its way to emerge as a major player in global economy. Some support also came after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) took an important step towards a cap on crude-oil output, which helped in lifting oil prices.

Firm global cues too aided sentiments with all the Asian counters were trading in green at this point of time with Japanese market bouncing back and trading higher by over a percent in early deals as the yen weakened. The US markets moved higher in last session despite fluctuating through the day and the major averages managed to add to the notable gains posted in the previous session, supported by gains in crude prices.

Back home, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 73.83 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. In scrip specific developments, Shares of Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) has hit fresh 52-week high after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has allowed commodity exchanges to introduce trading in options. However, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, which recently concluded its Rs 6,057-crore IPO, made weak debut on the bourses with a cut of over one and a half percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28415.11, up by 122.30 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 28400.61 and 28475.57. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.39%, while Small cap index was up by 0.75%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.01%, Energy up by 1.11%, Consumer Durables up by 0.91%, Auto up by 0.81% and PSU up by 0.74%, while Telecom down by 0.29% was the lone loser on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 1.95%, GAIL India up by 1.92%, Reliance Industries up by 1.32%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.15% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.10%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 0.98%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.87%, Wipro down by 0.60%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.42% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.33% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to help the roll-out of the goods and services tax (GST), the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has cleared IT project Saksham, a new indirect tax network for systems integration of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). The total project cost is estimated around Rs 2,256 crore, which will be incurred over seven years and the upgrade of the IT systems will be carried out while keeping the existing taxpayer services running.

The government has stated that the project would facilitate extension of the Indian Customs Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade (SWIFT) and other taxpayer initiatives under ‘Digital India’ and ease of doing business of the CBEC. The implementation strategy for the project will be to ensure readiness of CBEC's IT framework by April, 1, 2017, when GST is to be introduced.

Project Saksham will help in implementation of GST, extension of the Indian Customs Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade (SWIFT) and other taxpayer-friendly initiatives under Digital India and Ease of Doing Business of CBEC. All taxpayers/importers/exporters/dealers under various indirect tax laws administered by CBEC-presently about 36 lakh- are likely to go up to over 65 lakh after introduction of GST. CBEC's IT structure needs to integrate with the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) for processing of registration, payment and returns data sent to CBEC as well as act as a front-end for other modules like audit, appeal and investigation.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8781.45, up by 36.30 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 8778.95 and 8800.65. There were 36 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 1.97%, Eicher Motors up by 1.84%, GAIL India up by 1.77%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.34% and Yes Bank up by 1.24%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 0.77%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 0.72%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.71%, Tata Power down by 0.66% and Wipro down by 0.60% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 4.21 points or 0.25% to 1,669.17, Shanghai Composite gained 16.79 points or 0.56% to 3,004.65, KOSPI Index increased 17.15 points or 0.84% to 2,070.21, Jakarta Composite jumped 45.05 points or 0.83% to 5,470.39, Taiwan Weighted surged 84.83 points or 0.92% to 9,279.35, Hang Seng added 112.32 points or 0.48% to 23,731.97 and Nikkei 225 was up by 252.92 points or 1.54% to 16,718.32.