Benchmarks turn green; Nifty surpasses 5,900 mark

Indian equity markets added gains to continue firm trade above neutral line in the late afternoon session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters. The sentiments on the street turned optimistic on report that the country’s services activity expanded last month at its fastest pace since February as burgeoning new orders drove optimism to a five-month high. The HSBC Markit Services Purchasing Managers’ Index, based on a survey of around 400 companies, rose to 53.6 last month from 50.7 in April. Traders were seen piling position in Oil & Gas, Realty and Health Care stocks while selling was witnessed in IT, FMCG and TECK sector stocks. In the scrip specific development, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) was trading firm on reports that a group of ministers (GoM) looking into the revival strategy for MTNL is scheduled to meet on June 11.

On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading in red while the European markets were too trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,900 and 19,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1014:1130, while 135 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,581.96, up by 36.18 points or 0.19%, after trading in a range of 19,589.27 and 19,441.35. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap was trading up by 0.13% and Small cap index was up by 0.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 1.45%, Realty up by 1.21%, Health Care up by 0.41%, Capital Goods up 0.35% and Auto up 0.33% while IT down by 0.72%, FMCG down by 0.68%, TECK down 0.57% and Consumer Durables down by 0.18% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.35%, Reliance Industries up by 2.34%, Gail India up by 1.90%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.63% and Hindalco Industries up by 1.53%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.69%, ITC down by 1.29%, Infosys down by 1.01%, Coal India down by 0.92% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.62% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, with an aim to provide a uniform regulatory environment to the real estate sector, the government has approved the real estate bill to set up a regulator for the sector. The law will cover any developer coming up with a project of 1,000 sq metres and above. The bill has various provisions like a jail term of up to three years for developers who make offences like putting up misleading advertisements about projects repeatedly.

The bill also intends to make it mandatory for developers to launch projects only after acquiring all statutory clearances from relevant authorities. Further, relevant clearances for real estate projects would have to be submitted to the regulator and also displayed on a website before starting the construction. The bill also makes it mandatory for builders to clarify the carpet area of the flat, which would be made uniform for the entire country.

The proposed real estate bill includes tough provisions to deter builders from using pictures of housing projects in foreign countries to lure buyers while advertising a project. They will have to use pictures reflecting the actual project, which will be delivered to home buyers. The developers will have to maintain a separate bank account for a particular project, and will not be allowed to divert the money for other projects. Failure to compliance for the first time would attract a penalty which may be up to 10 per cent of the project cost and a repeat offence could land the developer in jail up to three years.

The regulator will act only if there is a complaint of any deviation from the project details disclosed by a developer. Further, the bill also prohibits developers from collecting any money from buyers before completing all necessary permits to start construction on the project.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,925.15, up by 5.70 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 5,929.35 and 5,883.70. There were 25 stocks advancing against 24 declines, while one stock remains unchanged on the index. 

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 3.08%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 2.63%, Reliance Industries up by 2.36%, Gail India up by 1.93% and JP Associates up by 1.74%. On the flip side, Ambuja Cements down by 2.15%, ACC down by 1.57%, Axis Bank down by 1.48%, ITC down by 1.26% and HCL Technologies down by 1.15%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite slipped 0.07%, Hang Seng declined 0.97%, Jakarta Composite dropped 0.74%, Nikkei 225 decreased 3.83%, KLSE Composite dipped 0.21%, Straits Times contracted 1.45%, KOSPI Composite was down by 1.52% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.11%.

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.26%, Germany’s DAX lost 0.56% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.63%.