Markets end lackluster session with modest gains

Indian equity benchmarks snapped the lackluster session with marginal gains on Monday, with Nifty recapturing its crucial 8,700 level, while Sensex ended just shy of 28,100 mark. Markets made a gap-up opening with credit rating agency Crisil in its latest report stating that revenues of companies in key sectors such as automobiles, IT services, power, steel products, telecom services, pharmaceuticals and FMCG are expected to grow 7 per cent in the July-September 2016 quarter, compared with a marginal 2 per cent in the year ago period. Traders also took some encouragement with NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement that India can become a $ 10 trillion economy in the next 15 years, from the existing $ 2 trillion, like China did in last one and a half decade. Some support also came with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India is at the world’s centre stage more than ever before for ‘aspiring to do better in an adverse’ environment, though he also cautioned that by its own yardstick, the country’s current growth rate is not enough.

However, market participants booked most of their gains during the trade ahead of macro data scheduled to be announced through the week starting with factory output numbers later in the day. Gains also remained capped with the World Bank’s new report stating that India, the world's largest remittance recipient in 2015, may receive a remittance of $ 65.5 billion this year, a drop of 5 percent due to weak economic growth in remittances-source countries and cyclic low oil prices.

On the global front, European markets after weak start entered into green and were trading marginally in green, as markets saw less chance of a victory by Republican nominee Donald Trump in his US presidential bid amid a scandal over vulgar comments he made about women. Asian markets ended mixed as oil prices retreated on doubts over oil producers reaching a meaningful output cut deal, which brought some speculators to unwind bullish bets.

Closer home, appreciation in Indian rupee aided some sentiments. The rupee was trading higher by 12 paise against the US dollar to Rs 66.55 at the time of equity markets closing on sustained bouts of dollar selling by banks and exporters. The festivity was being seen at consumer durables counter, which remained the biggest gainer with gain of over one and a half percent. Buying in software stocks too aided sentiments. Stocks like Infosys, TCS, Zicom etc. edged higher ahead of their earnings with Infosys scheduled to announce its second quarter earnings on October 14, 2016. Metal shares too remained on buyers’ radar on hopes of demand revival from China, the world's largest consumer.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty gained ten points to regain its crucial 8,700 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex jumped by over twenty points to finish just near its psychological 28,100 mark. Broader markets, however, struggled to get any traction and ended the session mixed.

The market breadth remained in favour of advances, as there were 1,699 shares on the gaining side against 1,183 shares on the losing side while 134 shares remain unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 21.20 points or 0.08% to 28,082.34, while the CNX Nifty ended up by 11.20 points or 0.13% to 8,708.80. 

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 28,216.64 and 28,068.32, respectively and there were 17 stocks on gainers side against 13 stocks on the losers side on the index. The broader indices made a mixed closing; the BSE Mid cap index ended lower by 0.20%, while Small cap index was up by 0.25%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.69%, Metal up by 1.48%, Basic Materials up by 1.06%, IT up by 1.05% and TECK up by 0.84%, while Realty down by 1.21%, Energy down by 0.75%, Oil & Gas down by 0.59%, PSU down by 0.32% and Power down by 0.22% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.71%, Asian Paints up by 2.22%, Cipla up by 1.90%, Infosys up by 1.67% and Lupin up by 1.17%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 1.28%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.27%, Reliance Industries down by 1.26%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.14% and HDFC down by 0.96% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government will soon by notifying the rules of the Real Estate Act to regulate the housing sector, bring transparency and help protect consumer interests. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA), which is responsible for making such rules for Union Territories (UTs) has referred the draft rules to the Ministry of Law and Justice for inspection and senior officials of both the ministries after their meeting will be finalising the draft notification.  According to the provisions of the Act, Real Estate Regulatory Authorities and Real Estate Appellate Tribunals have to be set up by the end of April, 2017, and the entire Act is to come into effect the day after.

Real estate rules to be notified within 10 days by the Ministry of HUPA are applicable to the UTs of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep. The Ministry of Urban Development will come out with such rules for the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi, while other states and UTs will come out with their own rules. The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2016 was passed by Rajya Sabha on March 10, five days after its passage by Lok Sabha on March 15 this year.

The Real Estate Act, one of the major reform measure to regulate the vast real estate sector, requires registration of all projects with state level Real Estate Regulatory Authorities to ensure protection of the interests of both buyers and builders. According to the Act, 70 per cent of money taken from the buyers must be set aside in a separate bank account by the developers. This money can only be used for construction activities of that particular project. Developers cannot invest this money in other projects.

To protect buyers from being cheated with fancy designs on paper and model apartments, the Act makes it mandatory for sellers to disclose all project-related information, including project layout, status of approval for land and building, contractors involved and scheduled time of delivery. Also, as par the Act if a developer fails to hand over the property within the deadline, he would be liable to pay the buyer a certain amount as interest. This is to compensate the interest money the buyer will be paying against his housing loan. Furthermore, act also provides for imprisonment of up to three years for builders and one year for real estate agents and buyers for violation of any provisions of the Act.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 8,703.95 and 8,745.80. There were 28 stocks in green against 23 stocks in red on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 2.91%, ACC up by 2.65%, Asian Paints up by 2.37%, Cipla up by 1.86% and Bharti Infratel up by 1.77%. On the flip side, Bank of Baroda down by 1.16%, Reliance Industries down by 1.14%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.11%, NTPC down by 1.11% and Adani Ports & SEZ down by 1.07% were the top losers.

European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC increased 13.01 points or 0.29% to 4,462.92, UK’s FTSE 100 gained 13.24 points or 0.19% to 7,057.63 and Germany’s DAX was up by 53.1 points or 0.51% to 10,543.96.

The Asian markets made a mixed closing on Monday, as oil prices retreated on doubts over oil producers reaching a meaningful output cut deal, which brought some speculators to unwind bullish bets. However, losses across the region remained capped somewhat after Friday's weaker non-farm payrolls report reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve will not raise short-term interest rates at its November policy meeting. US non-farm payroll employment climbed by 156,000 jobs in September compared to estimates for an increase of about 176,000 jobs. The unemployment rate rose to 5 percent from 4.9 percent. Chinese shares ended higher as investors returned from a week-long holiday, even as property developers tumbled amid fresh curbs on property purchases.  Markets in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan were closed for public holidays.