Benchmarks make cautious start on Monday

Indian equity benchmarks have made a cautious start and are trading near neutral lines as traders remained on sidelines ahead of goods and services tax (GST) Council meeting and Wholesale Price index-based inflation due later in the day. Investors were eyeing any development on GST front, as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in order to ensure smooth passage of GST, will look forward to breaking the deadlock over power distribution between centre and states in the ninth meeting of GST Council. Some support came with report that exports jumped for the fourth month to 5.7 per cent in December to $23.8 billion, the highest since March 2015. As many as 18 of the 30 exporting sectors registered growth.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red at this point of time on worries UK Prime Minister Theresa May may signal plans for a ‘hard Brexit’ in her speech on Tuesday. The US markets made a mixed closing in last session before going for a long weekend. Back home, Shares of oil marketing companies (OMCs) viz. HPCL, BPCL and IOC remained on buyers’ radar after these companies raised petrol and diesel prices with effect from midnight of Sunday, January 15th 2017. The public sector banks (PSBs) too remained in action on report that the Finance Ministry is likely to finalise capital infusion plan for PSBs this week.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27249.06, up by 11.00 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 27172.68 and 27256.44. There were 17 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index, while one stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.21%, while Small cap index was up by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.23%, Consumer Durables up by 0.96%, Metal up by 0.92%, PSU up by 0.44% and Capital Goods was up by 0.26%, while IT down by 0.96%, TECK down by 0.66% and FMCG was down by 0.17% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.74%, Adani Ports &Special up by 1.41%, Tata Motors up by 1.28%, Lupin up by 1.02% and SBI was up by 0.82%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.77%, Wipro down by 0.69%, ICICI Bank down by 0.64%, NTPC down by 0.61% and ITC was down by 0.48% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in the fourth successive hike in last six weeks, the petrol price has been increased by 42 paisa a litre, diesel prices too got its third increase in the same period by Rs 1.03 per litre, by the state oil companies. The increase in rates, are excluding state levies and the actual hike are a even higher.
Including VAT, the hike in Delhi comes to 53 paisa and in case of diesel it will be Rs 1.20 a litre. Petrol will cost Rs 71.13 a litre as against Rs 70.60 currently and similarly, a litre of diesel will be priced at Rs 59.02 as opposed to Rs 57.82 currently.

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) said that the current level of international product prices of petrol and diesel and Rupee-US Dollar exchange rate warranted increase in selling price of petrol and diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price revision.

The PSU oil major also said that the movement of prices in the international oil market and foreign exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8396.30, down by 4.05 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 8374.40 and 8397.75. There were 31 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Idea Cellular up by 2.03%, Tata Steel up by 1.76%, Adani Ports & Special up by 1.36%, Tata Motors up by 1.27% and Zee Entertainment was up by 1.27%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 2.34%, Infosys down by 1.91%, Eicher Motors down by 1.73%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.99% and ICICI Bank down was by 0.80% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 236.48 points or 1.03% to 22,700.90, Nikkei 225 dropped 210.56 points or 1.09% to 19,076.72, Taiwan Weighted decreased 79.36 points or 0.85% to 9,299.47, Shanghai Composite fell 43.61 points or 1.4% to 3,069.15, KOSPI Index shed 9.29 points or 0.45% to 2,067.50 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 5.31 points or 0.32% to 1,667.19.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 8.48 points or 0.16% to 5,281.46.