Indian equities add minor losses; Nifty holds 6,150 mark

Indian equity markets added minor losses while continuing weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of profit booking in front line blue chip counters and sell off also occurred while taking cues from negative opening of European counterparts. Traders were seen piling position in Realty, Power and PSU stocks while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables, Health Care and Oil & Gas sector stocks. The Pharma company stocks were trading lower after the government formally notified a new drug pricing policy designed to increase the number of drugs deemed essential that are subject to price caps. The Cement stocks were trading firm despite the Competition Appellate Tribunal directed cement companies to pay 10% of a Rs 6,307 crore penalty. This penalty was imposed on them by fair trade regulator CCI for forming cartel in the sector. In the scrip specific development, JM Financial was trading firm after company stated that former Citigroup chief executive Vikram Pandit was buying a stake in the Indian financial services company.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in green while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 6,200 and 20,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1002:1256, while 141 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20,191.16, down by 56.17 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 20,308.97 and 20,155.01. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading down by 0.05% and 0.15% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.16%, Power up by 0.97%, PSU up by 0.11% and FMCG up by 0.09%, while, Consumer Durables down by 1.22%, Health Care down by 0.77%, Oil & Gas down 0.75%, Metal down by 0.69% and TECK down 0.42% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 1.82%, ICICI bank up by 1.10%, ONGC up by 0.83%, TCS up by 0.74% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.59%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.58%, Wipro down by 2.16%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.83%, Reliance Industries down by 1.67% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.64% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Mauritius, the nation from where India receives maximum foreign investments, is ready to sign a new Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with India, which would help the two countries to exchange information on tax matters of the entities doing business in the two countries. Beside this, both the countries are working on a new Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) and progress has been made on various fronts.

Mauritius’s finance secretary Ali Mansoor said that a joint working group has been set up for revision of the DTAA and Mauritius has taken a number of steps within and outside the provisions of pact to address India's concerns over possible money laundering activities through Mauritius. By adding further, he said that a pact has been signed between market regulators of two countries, SEBI and Financial Services Commission (FSC) by which Indian auditors have been allowed to come and check the books of entities operating from Mauritius. 

Recently, there have been concerns that Mauritius is being used for money laundering and round tripping of illicit funds as it accounts for almost half of the foreign money coming into India. Further, concerns related to Mauritius based entities coming to light in some cases of corruption and alleged tax evasion, which were suspected to have been set up by Indian entities to dodge the tax authorities in India.  The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,155.75, down by 14.15 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 6,188.60 and 6,146.15. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associates up by 2.87%, NTPC up by 2.08%, Ambuja Cement up by 1.74%, DLF up by 1.30% and ICICI Bank up by 1.14%. On the flip side, IndusInd Bank down by 3.41%, HCL technologies down by 2.56%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.46%, NMDC down by 2.37% and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories down by 1.82% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 1.38%, Jakarta Composite surged 1.39%, KLSE Composite increased 0.05% and Nikkei 225 added 0.67%.

On the flip side, Straits Times was down by 0.04% and Taiwan Weighted was down 0.26% were the only losers. Markets in Hong Kong and South Korea are closed for holidays.

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.10%, Germany’s DAX dropped 0.43% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 lost 0.22%.