Local equities trade marginally in green

Local equity benchmarks are trading marginally in green in morning session, with Sensex trading with gains of around 50 points. Asian Paints, Tata Motors, and HDFC are the top gainers, while Yes Bank, Tata Steel, and Bharti Airtel have lost the most. A sharp selloff was witnessed among Mid-cap and Small-cap indices. The markets drew some solace with a report that trade ministers and senior officials of RCEP member countries, including India and China, will hold series of meetings in October to iron out issues hampering negotiations over the proposed mega trade deal. Some comfort came with a report that the government will relax foreign direct investment (FDI) regulations to give a boost to the food processing sector, which has attracted $8.7 billion of investment.  Traders took note of report that Commerce Ministry removed the value limit for exports through post but has fixed Rs 5 lakh cap in case of overseas shipments through courier services. Besides, a private report state that Indian agriculture could be heading for bumper kharif crop harvest, that it could provide a major fillip to rice exports.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, following gains on Wall Street overnight after news of robust US economic growth, with the chairman of the Federal Reserve saying the United States does not face a large chance of near-term recession. Back home, on the sectoral front, Aviation stocks were buzzing on the streets, despite a private report stated that Indian carriers are unlikely to face a significant hit from the government's decision this week to impose a tariff on jet fuel, as imports account for less than 5 percent of domestic jet fuel consumption.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36369.26, up by 45.09 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 36208.01 and 36511.39. There were 13 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining, while 2 stocks remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.05%, while Small cap index was down by 1.23%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.57%, Oil & Gas up by 0.55%, Utilities up by 0.35%, PSU up by 0.26% and Bankex was up by 0.26%, while Metal down by 2.03%, Realty down by 1.51%, Basic Materials down by 1.30%, Telecom down by 1.17% and TECK was down by 0.75% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 2.01%, Tata Motors up by 1.95%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.56%, HDFC up by 1.53% and SBI was up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 7.19%, Tata Steel down by 2.89%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.56%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.19% and Vedanta was down by 2.06% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Ministry has said that the government’s move to levy 5 percent import duty on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) is unlikely to push airfares higher as bulk of the fuel is produced by domestic refineries. It said “When we did the exercise of looking at how many items are essential and how many are non-essential, we also looked at whether their capacity in India is available for that item.”

The Ministry has stated that this is the result of the scrutiny of all the items that it has done and also has to look at every small measure to conserve the balance of payments. With regard to ATF, it said that India is not short of jet fuel and the total usage of the fuel was worth Rs 30,000 crore last year. It also pointed out that the import last year was worth Rs 1,100 crore and a 5 per cent duty on that would be a miniscule Rs 55 crore. So, the imposition of duty may not impact airline fares.

The government has hiked customs duties on as many as 19 items, including jet fuel, ACs and refrigerators as it aims to curb imports of non-essential goods. The other items include washing machines, speakers, radial car tyres, jewellery items, kitchen and tableware, certain plastic goods, and suitcases.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10984.35, up by 6.80 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 10920.75 and 11034.10. There were 25 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 2.46%, Tata Motors up by 2.31%, Asian Paints up by 2.06%, HDFC up by 1.77% and Bharti Infratel was up by 1.55%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 6.74%, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 4.54%, JSW Steel down by 3.19%, Tata Steel down by 2.96% and Bharti Airtel was down by 2.83% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Shanghai Composite gained 25.96 points or 0.92% to 2,817.73, Hang Seng surged 147.37 points or 0.53% to 27,863.04, Nikkei 225 rose 300.39 points or 1.25% to 24,097.13, Jakarta Composite soared 19.82 points or 0.33% to 5,949.04 and Straits Times was up by 22.36 points or 0.69% to 3,258.62.

On the other side, KOSPI slipped 10.55 points or 0.45% to 2,344.88 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 43.79 points or 0.4% to 10,990.40.