Sensex, Nifty manage to keep head above water

Indian equities were trading flat in the late morning session as investors preferred to adopt a cautious approach ahead of the vote on FDI in Parliament also, weak cues from Asian markets dampened the domestic sentiment. China despite strong macro data was underperforming heavily, declining for the sixth session in seven days; consumer staples especially liquor companies have extended their fall on worries of decline in demand. The traders were seen piling up position in Realty, Oil& Gas and Power sector while selling was witnessed in IT, FMCG and TECk sector. In the scrip specific development, Reliance Industries shares were trading in green on report that the government was set to approve the company’s investment plan for its KG-D6 block, which has been mired in controversy for a while now. Jet Airways (India) , SpiceJet and Kingfisher Airlines  edged higher after state-run Indian Oil Corporation trimmed prices of aviation turbine fuel in four metro cities with effect from December 01, 2012. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5,850 and 19200 levels. The market breadth on BSE was positive, in the ratio of 1439:699.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19323.64 up by 18.32 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 1 19359.49 and 19274.03. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.65% and Small cap index was up by 0.75%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.08%, Oil& Gas up by 0.85%, Power up by 0.72%, PSU was up by 0.66% and Healthcare up by 0.78%, while IT down by 0.41%, BSE FMCG down by 0.35%, TECk down by 0.19% and Auto down by 0.02% were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 1.88%, ONGC up by 1.47%, Jindal Steel up by 1.31%, SBI up by 1.08% and RIL up by 0.99%. On the flip side, ITC down 0.84%, TCS down by 0.83%, M&M down by 0.80%, Hindalco Inds down by 0.60% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.59% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in the pre-budget recommendations to the government, the industry body, Assocham President Rajkumar Dhoot has advised raising personal income tax exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh, reducing service tax and excise to 8% from 12% and increase in deduction of interest on housing loan to 5 lakh to revive consumer demand and to boost investment. The pre-budget memorandum for 2013-14 was jointly released by the chamber including President Dhoot, Chairman and Co-Chairman of taxes council Ved Jain and J.K. Mittal and chamber's Secretary-General D.S. Rawat.

Dhoot has also asked for reduction of corporate tax to 25% from 30%, besides demanding grant of infrastructure status to special economic zones and industrial parks. According to Assocham’s pre-budget memorandum for 2013-14, the base exemption limit of resident individual below the age of 60 years should be raised to Rs 3 lakh, to incentivize people to come into the tax net, ensure higher collection from greater compliance and encourage consumption and savings.

Moreover, the chamber said the tax base for goods and services has already expanded to generate high revenue and the government can selectively increase customs duty rates to neutralise the effect of lower tax rate of excise duty and service tax. Besides, by increasing customs rates, the government can protect the domestic industry from unfair competition from countries like China.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,877.65, up by 6.70 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 5,886.95 and 5,862.25. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associates up by 2.31%, BPCL up by 1.79%, ONGC up by 1.60%, Jindal Steel up by 1.51% and DLF up by 1.49%.

On the flip side, TCS down by 1.05%, M&M down by 1.01%, ITC down by 0.81%, HUL down by 0.73% and ACC down by 0.69% were the top losers on the Nifty.

All the Asian markets continue to trade in red; Shanghai Composite was down by 0.40%, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.72%, KLSE Composite down by 0.14%, Nikkei 225 declined by 0.29%, Seoul Composite was lower by 0.26%, Straits Times was down by 0.27%, Hang Seng down by 0.01% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.26%.