Benchmarks trade slightly in red in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks have made a cautious start and are trading slightly in red in early deals on Wednesday, as investors opted to book profit after yesterday’s huge rally. However, losses remained capped with report that the GST Council on Tuesday headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley discussed a four-tier rate structure suggested by the Centre and agreed on compensation to loss-incurring states for the first five years of the new tax regime. Jaitley also informed that the GST Council meeting has reached a consensus on definition of revenue to compensate states for revenue loss from GST implementation.

Positive cues from global markets too aided sentiments. Most of the Asian counters were trading in green at this point of time amid speculation the Federal Reserve will stick to a gradual tightening of monetary policy and as investors awaiting key economic data from China. The US markets closed higher in last session but were well off the day’s high. Traders picked up stocks at reduced levels amid latest batch of good corporate results, while on economy front consumer prices rose in line with estimates in the month of September.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28026.07, down by 24.81 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 27984.52 and 28131.07. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.15%, while Small cap index was up by 0.52%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.13%, Energy up by 0.84%, PSU up by 0.78%, Healthcare up by 0.78% and Power up by 0.58%, while FMCG down by 0.39%, Auto down by 0.21%, Bankex down by 0.18%, IT down by 0.12% and Realty down by 0.09% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 2.69%, Wipro up by 1.79%, Sun Pharma up by 1.64%, Lupin up by 1.33% and ONGC up by 1.18%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.20%, ITC down by 1.02%, TCS down by 0.90%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.87% and Adani Ports &Special down by 0.66% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet will soon be meeting to consider the proposal to advance the union budget on February 1 after the Election Commission (EC) gave its nod in light of upcoming Assembly elections in the five states. The central government wanted to present it earlier to ensure the passage of the finance bill in Parliament so that its proposals can be implemented from April 1. Currently, the Union Budget is presented on the last day of February.

While deciding to advance the budget presentation by a month, the government took the line that it should not be presented in the middle of Assembly poll in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. So, it consulted the EC, which has concurred with the finance ministry's view that it is an annual financial statement and can come any time of the government's choice. The Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to meet on October 19 or October 20 to decide on the date for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to present the budget for the financial year 2017-18.

The finance ministry had proposed that the Budget presentation be fixed for February 1 and the entire exercise is completed by March 24. It wanted the Budget Session of the Parliament to begin before January 25 and go in for a three-week break to February 10-15 before reconvening in between March 10-15 to complete the legislative exercise. Further, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had stated that the reason behind to advance the date was that they want the entire budgetary exercise to be over and the Finance Bill to be passed and implemented from April 1 onwards rather than June because then the monsoon sets in and effectively, the expenditures start in October.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8673.45, down by 4.45 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 8660.60 and 8698.75. There were 30 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 4.37%, GAIL India up by 2.84%, Sun Pharma up by 1.73%, BPCL up by 1.69% and Wipro up by 1.50%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.16%, ICICI Bank down by 1.11%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.08%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.97% and TCS down by 0.94% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 0.36 points or 0.02% to 1,667.93, Shanghai Composite gained 3.67 points or 0.12% to 3,087.54, KOSPI Index increased 5.29 points or 0.26% to 2,045.72, Nikkei 225 added 18.51 points or 0.11% to 16,982.12 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 60.91 points or 0.66% to 9,283.49. On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 29.06 points or 0.12% to 23,365.33 and Jakarta Composite was down by 7.93 points or 0.15% to 5,422.12.