Markets continue to trade rangebound, Nifty holds 8400 level

Indian markets continued their rangebound lackluster trade in early noon session, though the major averages were managing to remain in green albeit modestly despite the report that India’s Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation in the month of December 2016 increased to 3.39 percent compared to 3.15 percent in the previous month and (-) 1.06 percent during the corresponding month of the previous year. Traders got some encouragement with food articles inflation for the month remaining in negative, indicating a 0.7% fall in food prices in December as compared to 1.54% rise in the previous month. Also, the 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. However, there weren’t any major supportive cues that could further support the markets amid mostly lower regional markets. Traders were eyeing the ongoing meeting of GST council where the centre and states are looking at a formula to sort out the row over levying goods and services tax on the high seas by letting the government collect the tax and pass it on to the states. In scrip specific developments the PSU oil marketing companies were trading higher after increasing the petrol diesel prices, BPCL, HPCL and IOC, all were trading up by about a percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27266.96, up by 28.90 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 27172.68 and 27301.38. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.35%, while Small cap index gained 0.55%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.26%, Consumer Durables up by 1.34%, Metal up by 1.10%, Bankex up by 0.49%, PSU up by 0.47%, while IT down by 0.63%, TECK down by 0.40%, Oil & Gas down by 0.26%, FMCG down by 0.19% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.35%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.75%, Tata Motors up by 1.54%, SBI up by 1.26% and Power Grid Corpn. up by 0.99%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.35%, Reliance Industries down by 1.13%, GAIL India down by 0.79%, ITC down by 0.68% and ONGC down by 0.67% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in the ninth meeting of all powerful GST Council, headed by Jaitley, the Centre and states will look at a formula to sort out the row over levying goods and services tax on the high seas by letting the government collect the tax and pass it on to the states. The Centre's proposal to tax transactions that take place within 12 nautical miles from state borders has been opposed by several states, including BJP-ruled Gujarat and Maharashtra as well as Kerala, Karnataka and Odisha, which stand to lose substantial revenue.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that 'most of the issues have been sorted out, some critical issues remain and these critical issues over the next few weeks we will try and solve out'. 'We would want it to be implemented from April if all issues are resolved.' According to Jaitley, GST needs to be rolled out latest by September 16, 2017.

Jaitley will also look to break the deadlock over distribution of powers between centre and states to administer GST, an issue that is holding up launch of the new national sales tax from April. The council has been deadlocked in the last four meetings, with states seeking sole powers to control assessee with annual turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crore.

The council had in previous meeting agreed on most of the clauses of the draft IGST law, which along with Central-GST (CGST) and State-GST (SGST) have to be passed by the Parliament and state legislatives respectively before the new tax regime can be rolled out.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8402.40, up by 2.05 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 8374.40 and 8414.95. There were 33 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 2.44%, Idea Cellular up by 1.96%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.70%, Tata Motors up by 1.43% and SBI up by 1.30%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 1.82%, Eicher Motors down by 1.64%, Infosys down by 1.43%, Tata Power down by 1.32% and Reliance Industries down by 1.15% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets except Jakarta Composite which was up by 13.11 points or 0.25% to 5,286.09, were trading in red. Hang Seng slumped by 193.87 points or 0.85% to 22,743.51, Nikkei 225 lost 192.04 points or 1% to 19,095.24, Taiwan Weighted declined by 86.5 points or 0.92% to 9,292.33, KOSPI Index was lower by 12.62 points or 0.61% to 2,064.17, Shanghai Composite decreased by 12.16 points or 0.39% to 3,100.60 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 6.54 points or 0.39% to 1,665.96