Benchmarks trim some early gains; trade continues in green

Indian equity indices trimmed their initial gains but were still trading in green in late afternoon session due to value buying. Investors will be keeping an eye on Parliament winter session which begun today. The Centre has lined up three key Goods and Service Tax (GST) Bills for approval to roll out the new tax from April 1 next year even as the demonetisation move threatens to swamp the winter session of Parliament. Parliament would meet for 22 sittings between November 16 and December 16. The legislative agenda included nine Bills for introduction and approval, 10 pending Bills for passing. On the global front, European stocks were trading slightly in red on Wednesday, as markets took a breather from the recent post-U.S. election rally. Back home, on sectoral front, most of the oil marketing companies remained under pressure, as the prices of petrol and diesel had been cut by Rs 1.46 and Rs 1.53 a litre respectively, while the international crude prices spiked up last night.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26455.23, up by 150.60 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 26326.89 and 26621.40. There were 16 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained by 0.97%, while Small cap index was up by 0.58%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 2.44%, IT up by 2.31%, TECK up by 2.21%, Power up by 0.65% and Capital Goods up by 0.07%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.59%, Bankex down by 0.43%, Metal down by 0.25%, Oil & Gas down by 0.22% and Realty down by 0.19% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 3.95%, TCS up by 3.38%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.01%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.65% and Bharti Airtel up by 2.58%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.77%, Cipla down by 2.59%, Lupin down by 1.72%, ITC down by 1.39% and GAIL India down by 1.32% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, snapping the rising trend and giving some respite, the PSU Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have cut the price of petrol and diesel by Rs 1.46 a litre and Rs 1.53 a litre respectively. The reduction in prices comes after a string of hikes that is six times since September and will be effective from midnight of November 15 and November 16.

Following the cut, the price of petrol in the National Capital will be Rs 65.93 per litre as against Rs. 67.62 a litre currently, whereas price of diesel will be Rs. 54.71 per litre compared with the Rs. 56.41 now. At the last revision on November 5, OMCs had hiked price of petrol and diesel by 89 paise per litre and 86 paise per litre respectively. Altogether, in the last six hikes, petrol price had gone up by Rs 7.53 per litre, while the three price increases totalled Rs 3.90 a litre for diesel.

According to IOC the country's largest fuel retailer, the reduce in prices is due to the movement of prices in the international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes. It further added that the current level of international product prices of petrol and diesel and INR-USD exchange rate warrant decrease in selling price of petrol and diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price revision.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8158.60, up by 50.15 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 8100.50 and 8210.05. There were 30 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 6.00%, Zee Entertainment up by 4.56%, Asian Paints up by 4.28%, TCS up by 3.37% and Tech Mahindra up by 3.32%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.91%, Cipla down by 2.70%, Ambuja Cement down by 2.66%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.48% and Aurobindo Pharma down by 2.10% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index rose 12.12 points or 0.62% to 1,979.65, Taiwan Weighted increased 31.19 points or 0.35% to 8,962.22, Jakarta Composite surged 107.99 points or 2.13% to 5,186.49 and Nikkei 225 was up by 194.06 points or 1.1% to 17,862.21. On other hand, Hang Seng decreased 43.38 points or 0.19% to 22,280.53, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 5.3 points or 0.33% to 1,625.26 and Shanghai Composite was down by 1.93 points or 0.06% to 3,205.06.

European Markets were trading mostly in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 12.51 points or 0.12% to 10,722.63 and UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 4.7 points or 0.07% to 6,788.04, while France’s CAC increased 3.86 points or 0.09% to 4,540.39.