Sensex, Nifty trade marginally in green

Indian markets continued their choppy trade in late morning session on worries over economic and political uncertainty. Investors remained cautious ahead of the fourth quarter earnings season, which begins with Infosys results on Friday. On the global front, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red on concerns over the ongoing tensions in the Korean peninsula while, the US markets declined on Friday on getting weaker monthly jobs data.

Back home, the traders were seen piling up positions in Consumer Durables, Auto and Realty, while selling was seen in IT, FMCG and Capital Goods sector. In scrip specific actions, Power Grid Corporation of India gained after its board approved investments worth Rs.3, 451 crore in 7 new projects. DLF zoomed after on sale of its wind power assets in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. Tata Motors soared after media reported its unit Jaguar Land Rover reported its highest UK sales at 17,773 units, up 20 percent on year. Bharti Airtel surged ahead of a Supreme Court hearing on a petition by Chairman Sunil Mittal seeking to overturn a lower court order that asked him to appear before the court in a spectrum allocation corruption case. Jindal Steel & Power dropped after the company said its holding company has pledged company shares with the Singapore unit of Credit Suisse. The steel company did not disclose the amount in its filing after market hours on Friday. Infosys declined ahead of its quarterly results due on Friday. Idea Cellular slumped after the Income Tax Department sent a Rs. 3.900-crore demand notice on the company and its subsidiary Aditya Birla Telecom over a restructuring exercise approved by courts more than three years ago. Aditya Birla Nuvo tumbled after the company decided to divest its carbon black business by way of slump sale to SKI Carbon Black India. Heritage Foods slipped after three contract workers were burnt to death in a blast at its diary plant in Visakhapatnam. Bank of Baroda was trading in pressure even as the state-owned lender denied allegations that its branch in the tax havens in Nassau in Bahamas has transferred Dawood Ibrahim's funds.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 5500 and 18,400 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was showing positive trend with advances to declines in ratio of 885: 625.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18456.60, up by 6.37 points or 0.03 after trading in a range of 18504.48 and 18426.61. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.22% and Small cap index was up by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.58%, Auto up by 0.54%, Realty up by 0.51%, Oil & Gas up by 0.43%, Power up by 0.43% while, IT down by 0.64%, FMCG down by 0.56% ,Capital Goods down by 0.38% and Teck down by 0.35% were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 1.79%, Tata Motors up by 1.41%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.30%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.15% and Tata Steel up by 0.92%.

On the flip side, ITC was down by 1.46%, TCS was down by 1.33%, Jindal Steel was down by 1.18%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 1.11% and  Wipro was down by 1.09% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Worried over the growing cases of service tax evasion, the Finance Ministry is likely to setup Directorate of Anti Evasion to check service tax evasion. According to an official statement by the finance ministry, the number of services under service tax has increased significantly and there is a need to strengthen anti-evasion activities in service tax to ensure proper compliance from service tax assesses’. The proposed intelligence unit to check the menace and stop leakage of revenue is to be set on the lines of two other intelligence agencies - Directorate General of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI).

The finance ministry is on the view that the intelligence agencies such as DGCEI and DRI have been actively catching service tax, excise and customs duty evaders, but, a separate directorate may help in ensuring strict check on service tax evasion. The Central Board of Excise and Custom (CBEC) has detected service tax evasion of Rs 9,800 crore during April-December period of FY13 against Rs 5,000-6,000 crore in the same period of previous fiscal.

Earlier this year, the Government had given a stern warning to excise, customs and service tax evaders to either pay dues on time or face penal action which could include arrest, prosecution and property attachment. Following this, the Government has realised Rs 10,453 crore service tax during February, up by 44 percent compared to collections in the previous month. The service tax collection during April-February of FY13 was Rs 1.13 lakh crore. As per the revised estimate, the Government aims to collect Rs 4.69 lakh crore in FY13 from indirect taxes, comprising customs, excise and service tax.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,555.45 up by 2.20 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 5,569.20 and 5,544.90. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Reliance Infrastructure up by 3.39%, Ambuja Cements up by 2.03%, Cipla up by 1.82%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.28% and Tata Motors up by 1.27%.

On the flip side, Ranbaxy down by 1.60%, Jindal Steel & Power down by 1.48%, ITC down by 1.34%, TCS down by 1.25% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.16% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 16.23 points or 0.73% to 2,209.07, Jakarta Composite dropped 26.46 points or 0.54% to 4,899.61, Straits Times slipped 4.12 points or 0.12% to 3,295.84, KOSPI Composite declined 2.30 points or 0.12% to 1,924.93 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 177.71 points or 2.23% to 7,765.11.

On the flip side, Hang Seng rose 6.77 points or 0.03% to 21,733.67, KLSE Composite increased 1.63 points or 0.10% to 1,690.28 and Nikkei 225 was up by 318.69 points or 2.48% to 13,152.12.