Benchmarks pare losses to trade near the neutral line

Indian equity benchmarks recovered from day's low and are trading tad below their neutral lines after the annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI), eased to 3.15% for the month of November 2016, as compared to 3.39% for the previous month and minus 2.04% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Though, investors remained cautious ahead of the US rate-setting committee’s verdict on rate hike. Asian markets were trading mostly in red with investors’ keeping an eye on a key US Federal Reserve meeting later in a day. Back home, in scrip specific development, Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) was down by around one third of a percent. The company announced that Jindal Power, a subsidiary of the company has successfully obtained commercial date of operation (COD) in respect of 4th and last unit of 2,400 megawatts (MW) power plant at Tamnar.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26695.07, down by 2.75 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 26547.05 and 26736.34. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index down by 0.30%, while Small cap index was down by 0.27%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.94%, IT up by 0.85%, TECK up by 0.64%, Consumer Durables up by 0.31% while, PSU down by 1.01%, Metal down by 0.98%, Capital Goods down by 0.45%, FMCG down by 0.44%, Power down by 0.25% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 3.68%, Reliance Industries up by 2.07%, Asian Paints up by 1.07%, Infosys up by 1.06% and Tata Motors up by 1.04%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 3.52%, ONGC down by 1.68%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.31%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.21% and ICICI Bank down by 1.11% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the bilateral trade between India and China which stood at $52.14 billion from January-September 2016 is expected to be over $65 billion by the year-end. Wang Shicai, the Commercial Counsellor at the Chinese Consulate said that bilateral trade between Asian giants India and China will touch $65 billion for the year ending December 2016 and focus by China will be in financial, infrastructure, electronics and Information Technology sectors.

The Chinese diplomat said that mutual cooperation between the two countries has resulted in a win-win situation for both and would help increase profitability in the coming years. Co-chairman of CII Task Force on Ease of Doing Business and CMD Chemtrols Industries K. Nandakumar said that India is at the same position where China was 10 years ago and hence there is a huge potential here considering its present demographics.

China Homelife and China Machinex 2016 in association with their National Partners CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) organised a three days exhibition. More than 1,000 of the top most Chinese suppliers will be part of China Machinex, where they will display over 20,000 products during the three day event. China Machinex is a global series of China products show annually held across nine counties - Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, Poland, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Jordan,UAE and India.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8209.15, down by 12.65 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 8165.10 and 8229.40. There were 16 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 3.51%, HCL Tech. up by 2.61%, Reliance Industries up by 2.03%, Tata Power up by 1.35% and Asian Paints up by 1.34%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 3.61%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 2.32%, Bosch down by 1.99%, Eicher Motors down by 1.80% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.80% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red;Jakarta Composite decreased 25.51 points or 0.48% to 5,268.11, Shanghai Composite decreased 14.51 points or 0.46% to 3,140.53, Taiwan Weighted decreased 13.62 points or 0.15% to 9,368.52  and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 3.67 points or 0.22% to 1,641.61. On the flip side, KOSPI Index increased 0.89 points or 0.04% to 2,036.87, Nikkei 225 increased 3.09 points or 0.02% to 19,253.61 and Hang Seng increased 9.92 points or 0.04% to 22,456.62.

European markets were trading mostly in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 27.79 points or 0.25% to 11,256.86, France’s CAC decreased 26.69 points or 0.56% to 4,777.18 and UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 22.15 points or 0.32% to 6,946.42.