Benchmarks turn flat; Nifty holds 8,250 mark

Indian equity benchmarks have turned flat after making a higher opening tracking mixed trend among global peers. Though, frontline gauges managed to hold their crucial 8,250 (Nifty) and 26,700 (Sensex) bastions, as traders took some encouragement with CBEC Chairman Najib Shah’s statement that the GST Council may in future decide to reduce the tax slabs under the Goods and Services Tax regime after analysing the revenue garnered and the compensation payouts to states. He said that any change in tax slab is possible after assessing the revenues and the effect of exemptions and deductions given in the new tax regime and analysing it with the expenditure.

On the global front, Asian markets were exhibiting mixed trend at this point of time, with some indices trading in red on European Central Bank’s pledge to cut bond buying, though the Japanese market was higher on weakness in yen. Back home, stocks related to power sector remained under pressure after the Supreme Court set aside an electricity tribunal’s order that allowed it to recover Rs 1,050 crore dues from seven state utilities and Tata Power Distribution Company. Selected stocks from auto counters too edged lower on report that demonetization has hit the auto sector hard, with sales in November being impacted across all segments. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26739.88, up by 45.60 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 26707.81 and 26803.26. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.01%, while Small cap index was up by 0.32%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.06%, TECK up by 0.75%, Consumer Durables up by 0.55%, Industrials up by 0.46% and FMCG was up by 0.33%, while Telecom down by 0.44%, Oil & Gas down by 0.30%, PSU down by 0.24%, Metal down by 0.12% and Bankex was down by 0.12% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.43%, Tata Motors up by 1.25%, Asian Paints up by 1.20%, ITC up by 1.14% and ONGC up by 0.98%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.27%, Coal India down by 1.22%, HDFC down by 1.10%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.74% and HDFC Bank down by 0.72% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has accepted that the $48 billion target for textiles and garment exports for 2016-17, may be hard to achieve due to less demand in major markets like the US, EU and China. During 2015-16, the overall export of textiles and garments from India was $40 billion, which was below the target of $47.5 billion. Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani conceded that despite various efforts by the government, it will be difficult to achieve the target for the fiscal.

Highlighting the measures taken by the government to attain the export goal, Textiles Minister Smriti Irani said that to promote exports in garments sector, a special package of incentives was announced in June this year which includes relaxation in certain labour laws, income tax concession, 100 percent employer's contribution to EPFO by government, rebate of state levies for exports, etc.

Irani further said that the government implements various export promotion schemes to promote exports of all the segments in the sector on a sustained basis. These include, Interest Equalisation Scheme, Merchandise Exports from India Scheme, Market Access Initiative, Market Development Assistance and Duty Drawback.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8250.90, up by 4.05 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 8241.95 and 8271.90. There were 23 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index, while 2 stocks remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 1.54%, Hindalco up by 1.48%, Tata Motors up by 1.30%, HCL Tech up by 1.20% and Asian Paints up by 1.17%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 1.90%, BPCL down by 1.64%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.49%, Bosch down by 1.47% and Grasim Industries down by 1.32% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Taiwan Weighted rose 9.05 points or 0.1% to 9,384.91, Shanghai Composite increased 22.22 points or 0.69% to 3,237.58 and Nikkei 225 was up by 231.43 points or 1.23% to 18,996.90.

On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 63.9 points or 0.28% to 22,797.94, Jakarta Composite slipped 11.25 points or 0.21% to 5,292.48, KOSPI Index declined 8.89 points or 0.44% to 2,022.18 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 4.39 points or 0.27% to 1,639.36.