Sensex, Nifty trade in red in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks erased gains and drifted below neutral line in late morning session on account of selling in front line blue chip counters. The rupee opened higher against dollar on account of mild selling of American currency by banks and exporters. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) stood net sellers in domestic equity markets on Monday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 103.10 crore with gross purchases and gross sales of Rs 3,237.92 crore and Rs 3,341.02 crore, respectively. The sentiments were under pressure following the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report, which so far had maintained that India is a bright spot against the gloomy global economic outlook, too has cut India’s economic growth estimate for 2016-17 to 6.6% from its earlier projection of 7.6%, due to the impact of the government's move of demonetization of high value currency notes in early November. The downside was arrested by news that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Monday broke a deadlock over issues of administrative control over assessees and broadly agreed to roll out the GST from July 1, instead of the earlier deadline of April 1. Under the proposed tax regime, 90% of all assessees with a turnover of Rs 1.5 crore or less will be assessed for scrutiny and audit by state authorities, the remaining 10% by the Centre.  The Council also resolved a logjam over the right to tax economic activities within 12 nautical miles from India’s coasts. Select logistics companies like Snowman Logistics, Gateway Distripark, Gati and Patel Integrated were trading in green by the news that India will likely be able to roll out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1, 2017.

Traders were seen piling position in Realty, Capital Goods and Consumer Durables stocks, while selling was witnessed in Metal, Oil & Gas and Power sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Teamlease Services was trading in green on inking a definite agreement to acquire 100 percent shares in Keystone Business Solutions. The consideration involved in the transaction is Rs 8.2 crore payable in cash. Delta Corp was trading in green on receiving a licence for operations of a casino in Gangtok, Sikkim.

On the global front, Asian shares were trading mostly in green, ahead of a highly-anticipated speech by British premier Theresa May on plans for Brexit. Japanese Economy Minister Nobuteru Ishihara said that a fall in the British pound and declines in stocks reflected uncertainty about Britain's departure from the European Union and about the global economy. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 8,450 and 27,300 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1231:922, while 123 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27265.71, down by 22.46 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 27231.66 and 27381.43. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.23%, while Small cap index was up by 0.42%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.61%, Capital Goods up by 0.52%, Consumer Durables up by 0.47%, IT up by 0.46% and FMCG up by 0.40%, while Metal down by 0.73%, Oil & Gas down by 0.58%, Power down by 0.11%, PSU down by 0.02% and Auto down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 1.23%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.17%, Asian Paints up by 1.08%, Sun Pharma up by 0.92% and TCS up by 0.69%.

On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 2.32%, Adani Ports & Special down by 1.18%, Tata Steel down by 0.96%, Lupin down by 0.83% and Power Grid down by 0.78% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India has slipped 3 places to 92nd rank from last year rank of 89th in the latest rankings of the global talent competitiveness index. This index measures how countries grow, attract and retain talent. The report accompanying the rankings by INSEAD Produced in partnership with The Adecco Group and the Human Capital Leadership Institute of Singapore (HCLI), said that India’s information technology (IT) sector is already witnessing jobless growth, paralleling the recently publicised downside of the tech boom in the United States that not enough jobs.

According to the report, among the five BRICS countries, India’s ranking was worst, while China was ranked at the 54th place, Russian Federation was placed at 56th, followed by South Africa at 67th and Brazil 81st. It said that within the group of upper-middle-income countries, BRICS countries are not getting stronger and both China and India have slipped from their year-ago rankings.

The report though noted that India stood on a relatively solid pool of global knowledge skills compared with other emerging markets, but the country is not able to retain and attract talent. In terms of retaining and attracting talent, India was ranked at a lowly 104th and 114th, respectively. As per the report, this is not likely to improve until India boosts performance in its regulatory (94th) and market (99th) landscapes. It further said that overall, a challenge for countries such as China and India is to attract talent from abroad, particularly in the context of large emigration rates of high-skilled people. It added that although diasporas have been engaged successfully in some industries, a great deal of talent continues to leave the country, and thus India still experiences a brain drain.

In the list Switzerland topped the overall index, followed by Singapore and the United Kingdom in second and third places respectively. Others in the top 10 included the United States (4th), Sweden (5th), Australia (6th), Luxembourg (7th), Denmark (8th), Finland (9th) and Norway (10th).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8404.75, down by 8.05 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 8395.20 and 8440.90. There were 22 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 1.20%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.15%, Asian Paints up by 1.04%, Zee Entertainment up by 1.04% and Sun Pharma up by 0.99%.

On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 2.37%, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 1.51%, Hindalco down by 0.93%, Tata Steel down by 0.93% and Lupin down by 0.93% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 4.96 points or 0.3% to 1,663.80, KOSPI Index increased 8.2 points or 0.4% to 2,072.37, Jakarta Composite increased 11.55 points or 0.22% to 5,281.56, Taiwan Weighted increased 53.25 points or 0.57% to 9,345.58 and Hang Seng increased 71.61 points or 0.32% to 22,789.76.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 decreased 198.24 points or 1.04% to 18,897.00 and Shanghai Composite decreased 18.69 points or 0.6% to 3,084.74.