Benchmarks continue to trade marginally in green

Indian equity benchmarks continued their trade in green in the late morning session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters and ahead of the quarterly numbers from over 50 domestic companies, including Axis Bank and Idea Cellular, scheduled for later in the day. Through the trading week, 475 companies will be announcing September quarter results. The sentiments were optimistic with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that the Goods and Services Tax law will boost domestic demand, create more opportunities for domestic business and drive job creation. He said that India is the fastest growing major economy, and one of the most attractive destinations for FDI. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley stated that the pace at which the Union government is moving has surpassed that of the private players. The minister added that normally industry is ahead of the government, but at the moment the private sector is a little behind government. Taking a jab at Indian industry he said that public investment pace has picked up. The upside however remained capped after Indian rupee weakened marginally against the US dollar, tracking losses in its Asian peers. This is the third consecutive session when the rupee is trading lower. Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 272.91 crore on Friday as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Traders were seen piling up positions in PSU, Oil & Gas and Bankex stocks, while selling was witnessed in IT, TECK and Capital Goods sector stocks. Telecom sector shares fell after TRAI recommended to the telecom department to impose heavy penalties on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India - Rs 1,050 crore each and Idea Cellular – Rs 950 crore, for denying Jio adequate points of interconnection (PoIs), while violated rules. In scrip specific development, Wipro was trading in red after the Bengaluru-based company came out with a soft guidance for the December quarter. The outsourcer reported in-line earnings for the third quarter but the street is disappointed by its guidance for the December quarter. Another mid-tier outsourcer, Mindtree was also trading in red, which announced earnings after market hours on Friday, reported weak numbers for the September quarter.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher, with Tokyo gaining as Japan reported its trade balance swung to a surplus in September and strong Japanese manufacturing data from a purchasing managers’ survey also suggested signs of improved activity in the world’s third biggest economy. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,700 and 28,100 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1527:764, while 160 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28127.01, up by 49.83 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 28075.95 and 28192.20. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.18%, while Small cap index was up by 0.64%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 0.72%, Oil & Gas up by 0.71%, Bankex up by 0.67%, Auto up by 0.57% and Consumer Durables up by 0.33%, while IT down by 0.88%, TECK down by 0.78% and Capital Goods down by 0.29% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone up by 2.64%, ICICI Bank up by 2.23%, SBI up by 1.93%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.41% and Tata Motors up by 1.37%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 3.81%, Asian Paints down by 1.69%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.05%, Axis Bank down by 0.97% and TCS down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (Assocham) has said that it had earlier warned about cards frauds, after the unprecedented security breach report earlier this week, which showed compromised card data of many private and state-run banks. Citing its recent study, Assocham said that India has become a favourite hunting ground for global hackers and criminals and was the third biggest target for the hackers after the US and Japan.

The Assocham-Mahindra SSG joint study had forewarned that the credit/debit/ATM card frauds as detected by some of the largest banks were waiting to happen as India has been on the radar of the global cyber criminals who hack into the computer servers using malware.  According to the report, internet frauds alone have cost India a whopping $4 billion (about Rs 24,630 crore) in 2013 as cyber criminals are using more sophisticated means like ransom ware and spear-phishing. It added that during the years 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, a total number of 21,699, 27,605, 28,481 and 36,554 Indian websites were hacked, respectively, by various hacker groups spread across worldwide.

Further, the study also found that mobile frauds to be an area of concern for companies, as 35-40 per cent of financial transactions are done via mobile devices and this menace is expected to grow to 60-65 per cent by 2017. Credit and debit card fraud cases top the chart of cybercrimes. There has been a sixfold increase in such cases over the past three years. It also said that about 42% complaints of online banking related to/credit/debit card fraud followed by Facebook (31%)-related complaints (morphed pictures/cyber stalking/cyber bullying). Other major cyber complaints were cheating through mobile (12%), hacking of e-mail ID (10%), abusive/offensive/obscene calls and SMS (5%), and others. These attacks have been observed to be originating from the cyberspace of a number of countries including the US, Europe, Brazil, Turkey, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Algeria and the UAE. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra have occupied the top three positions when it comes to cybercrimes registered under the new IT Act in India.

As per the Assocham there is urgent need for having public-private-partnership (PPP) in cyber security for protecting the critical online data and creating awareness amongst the public. The government and regulators should develop comprehensive cyber security policies and frameworks from the perspective of incentives, tax breaks and technological development. It added that India should ensure active collaboration with the other countries and global cyber security agencies through international treaties in order to understand the latest threats and take proactive security measures. In an unprecedented security breach affecting both private and state-run banks, 32 lakh debit cards are estimated to have been ‘compromised’ by cyber malware attack in some ATM systems.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8704.05, up by 11.00 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 8684.15 and 8723.05. There were 30 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone up by 2.75%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.61%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.47%, ICICI Bank up by 2.36% and SBI up by 1.93%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 3.80%, HCL Tech. down by 2.40%, Idea Cellular down by 2.00%, Asian Paints down by 1.82% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.28% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 5.77 points or 0.35% to 1,675.75, Taiwan Weighted increased 7.05 points or 0.08% to 9,313.62, KOSPI Index increased 9.07 points or 0.45% to 2,042.07, Jakarta Composite increased 10.46 points or 0.19% to 5,419.70, Nikkei 225 increased 36.79 points or 0.21% to 17,221.38, Shanghai Composite increased 40.75 points or 1.32% to 3,131.70 and Hang Seng increased 80.51 points or 0.34% to 23,454.91.