Equity benchmarks trade flat with positive bias

The Indian equity benchmarks were trading flat with a positive bias in late morning session, as traders kept an eye out for any surprises in the US Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting that is likely to announce the decision on the interest rates in post market hours later in the day. Sentiments getting some support with Reserve Bank of India’s report stating that they have permitted Foreign Portfolio Investors to invest in treasury bills issued by the central government. However, the FPIs will have to ensure that their exposure in government securities as well as corporate bonds of less than one year maturity will remain below 20 per cent. Market-men also took some support from Finance minister Arun Jaitley statement that the Goods and services tax (GST) collections for March came in at Rs 1,03,458 crore, compared with a monthly average of around Rs 90,000 crore in July-March. Though, traders remained anxious with report stating that the growth of eight core infrastructure industries slowed to three-month low of 4.1% in March 2018, as compared to 5.3% in February 2018, on account of weak performance in as many as six sectors including coal, crude oil and natural gas. On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading red, as a report stated that US special counsel Robert Mueller raised the possibility of issuing a subpoena for US President Donald Trump if he declines to talk to investigators in the Russia probe.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35170.46, up by 10.10 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 35113.53 and 35357.15. There were 13 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.35%, while Small cap index was down by 0.09%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.53%, Auto up by 0.31%, Consumer Disc up by 0.15%, FMCG up by 0.04% and Realty was up by 0.02%, while Metal down by 2.14%, IT down by 1.17%, TECK down by 0.86%, PSU down by 0.76%, Basic Materials was down by 0.76% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 5.01%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.44%, Reliance Industries up by 1.37%, Tata Motors up by 0.82% and Tata Motors - DVR was up by 0.76%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.23%, Indusind Bank down by 1.77%, SBI down by 1.66%, Tata Steel down by 1.64% and Yes Bank was down by 1.42% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, easing rules for investments from the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted them to invest in Treasury Bills or T-Bills issued by the Central Government. However, the FPIs will have to ensure that their exposure in government securities as well as corporate bonds of less than one year maturity shall not exceed 20 percent of total investment. It also asked the investors to bring down their total exposure in debt instruments (G-secs, state development loans or, corporate bonds) with one-year maturity to below 20 percent within six months.

The central bank has stated that the implementation date of online monitoring of utilisation of G-sec limits has been set as June 1, 2018. The requirement that investment in securities of any category with residual maturity below one year should not exceed 20 percent of total investment by an FPI in that category applies, on a continuous basis. It added that all securities with residual maturity of less than one year will be reckoned for the 20 percent limit, regardless of the maturity of the security at the time of purchase by the FPI.

The RBI further said that if there are investments in securities with less than one year residual maturity as on May 2, 2018, and it constitutes more than 20% of the total investment in any category, the FPI will have to bring such share below 20% within a period of six months from the date of the circular. Besides, it noted that the FPI should ensure that no further additions are made to the portfolio of securities with residual maturity of less than one year as on May 2, 2018.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10729.50, down by 9.85 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 10717.95 and 10784.65. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 5.29%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.49%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.30%, Cipla up by 1.75% and Reliance Industries was up by 1.30%. On the flip side, HCL Tech down by 3.81%, Vedanta down by 3.64%, Hindalco down by 3.10%, ICICI Bank down by 2.36% and Tata Steel was down by 1.79% were the top losers.

All the Asian Markets were trading red, Hang Seng slipped 199.73 points or 0.65% to 30,608.72, Nikkei 225 declined 56.76 points or 0.25% to 22,451.27, Taiwan Weighted fell 39.07 points or 0.37% to 10,618.81, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 23.57 points or 1.26% to 1,846.80, KOSPI Index losses 11.68 points or 0.46% to 2,503.70, Shanghai Composite declined 10.82 points or 0.35% to 3,071.42 and Jakarta Composite was down by 2.99 points or 0.05% to 5,991.61.