Indian bourses continue to trade in positive terrain

Indian bourses continued their trade in positive terrain in noon session, led by gains in frontline blue chip stocks such as Coal India, Tata Motors, Dr. Reddys Lab, Hero MotoCorp and Tata Steel among others. Sentiments got some support with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that situation in Asia is not as pessimistic as the rest of the world, as there is still a lot of growth potential and that is why the Asian growth rate is much higher as compared to the other global growth rate.  Though, he also said India will have to undergo rapid urbanization in the next two decades and conceded that management or urban infrastructure, especially of water will become a serious challenge. Some support also came with the report that more than 1,300 new FPIs have registered with capital markets regulator in April-August period of 2016-17. This shows a sign of their willingness to be part of India's growth story. In scrip specific development, NDTV gained a percent after Vikram Chandra stepped down as the CEO and Executive Director of the company.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as oil prices began to slip after an initial bounce in the US on OPEC comments. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27958.95, up by 43.05 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 27789.84 and 27991.74. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.77%, while Small cap index was up by 0.91%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.90%, Auto up by 1.19%, Realty up by 1.18%, PSU up by 1.06%, Oil & Gas up by 0.61%, while there were no losing indices on BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 2.82%, Tata Motors up by 2.52%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.14%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.55% and Tata Steel up by 1.28%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.67%, Cipla down by 1.26%, GAIL India down by 0.95%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.94% and Infosys down by 0.54% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to check sugar prices and discourage hoarding, Union Cabinet has approved extending the stock limit on sugar by six months from October 29, 2016 to April 28, 2017. A decision in this regard was taken in the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stating that Cabinet has given its approval for extending the validity of the existing Central Order in respect of Sugar for a further period of six months from October 29, 2016 to April 28, 2017.

The official statement said that the main objective of the decision is to enable states to issue control order with the prior concurrence of central government, for fixing stock limits/licensing requirements in respect of sugar, whenever need is felt by them. This is expected to help in the efforts being taken to improve the availability of these commodities to general public at reasonable rates and control the tendencies of hoarding and profiteering. Sugar is currently quoting Rs 40-Rs 43 per kg in retail markets.

Earlier this year, the government had reimposed stock limits on sugar traders after a gap of five years due to rise in sugar prices following drop in domestic production, to ensure that sugar prices don’t surge due to manipulations by hoarders. Under this, each dealer or trader was allowed to stock up to 500 tonne in all states, barring parts of West Bengal. The stock-piling limit for a dealer in Kolkata and extended areas in West Bengal has been set at 1,000 tonne, which is the largest trading centre for the commodity in the country. After imposing a stock limit on traders and mills, the government had withdrawn the subsidy of Rs 4.5 per 100 kg on sugarcane production and imposed a 20% duty on export to rein in the rise in sugar prices.

The government has taken a series of measures in recent months to curb a rise in sugar prices, including suspending an earlier order for the compulsory sugar exports of 3.2 million tonne and putting curbs on stocks held by mills in the festive season. According to an estimate by the Indian Sugar Mills Association, Sugar production of India is likely to decline by 7% to 23.2 million tonnes in 2016-17 marketing year (October-September) from 25 million tonnes in the previous year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8641.10, up by 25.85 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 8581.75 and 8649.40. There were 36 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 6.17%, Coal India up by 3.13%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 3.04%, Tata Motors up by 2.57% and Zee Entertainment up by 2.54%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.86%, Cipla down by 1.41%, GAIL India down by 1.01%, Ambuja Cement down by 0.97% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.90% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 208.55 points or 0.9% to 22,923.80, KOSPI Index decreased 4.7 points or 0.23% to 2,019.42, Shanghai Composite decreased 4.16 points or 0.13% to 3,108.19 and Jakarta Composite decreased 3.98 points or 0.07% to 5,412.86.

 On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.64 points or 0.04% to 1,669.67, Taiwan Weighted increased 7.37 points or 0.08% to 9,306.92 and Nikkei 225 increased 109.99 points or 0.63% to 17,446.41.