Benchmarks remain volatile in late morning trade

Bout of volatility was being witnessed in the markets as key benchmarks alternately moved between positive and negative zone in late morning trade as investors await further steps from the government to help support the rupee. The domestic currency, however has recovered a little today on back of dollar selling by the banks. The currency traded at 61.16 a dollar, stronger from Wednesday's close of 61.30 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange Market. On the global front, Asian indices were rallying at this point of time as sentiments remained jubilant after Bank of Japan maintained its stimulus policy. Sentiments also got bolstered after Chinese exports rose 5.1 per cent in July from a year earlier, while imports jumped 10.9 per cent, leaving the country with a trade surplus of $17.8 billion for the month. Back home, traders were still buying from Auto, Realty and Consumer Durables counter, while selling was seen in Health Care, Oil & Gas and PSU on the BSE. Oil and gas counter were trading under pressure after Parliamentary panel recommended review of the Government’s decision to raise gas prices and said that Reliance Industries should deliver its shortfall in production of the fuel at the old rate.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading near the psychological 5,500 and 18,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was showing positive trend with advances to declines in the ratio of 929:606.The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18661.36, down by 3.52 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 18734.60 and 18621.67. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.55% and Small cap index gained 0.67%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 1.33%, Realty up by 1.27%, Consumer Durables up by 0.93%, Capital Goods up by 0.58% and Metal up by 0.29%, while Health Care down by 1.66%, Oil & Gas down by 0.72%, PSU down by 0.40%, Power down by 0.39% and FMCG down by 0.27%  were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.83%, Tata Motors up by 2.06%, HDFC up by 1.66%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.23% and Jindal Steel up by 1.13% .On the flip side, Sun Pharma was down by 3.27%, ONGC was down by 2.04%, Wipro was down by 2.00%, Cipla was down by 1.74% and  Tata Power was down by 1.49%,were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to expedite the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), a parliamentary panel has given approval to GST bill while suggesting amendments to provisions relating to tax structure and dispute resolution mechanism among others. The Standing Committee on Finance, headed by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, said that the present bill relating to GST has not been well drafted in specific aspects relating to tax rates, exemptions, exclusions, thresholds, administrative arrangements etc. and therefore required amendments.

The panel has suggested a voting mechanism instead of consensus for decisions of the GST Council and recommended that the proposed dispute settlement authority be dropped. Further, it has suggested that India could adopt the European model of a floor rate and a ceiling rate to allow states the freedom to have a high or low rate, but has favoured higher rates on demerit goods. The panel has also sought to address the concerns that the new GST law would lead to the loss of fiscal autonomy for the states and has recommended that one-third weightage for state representatives may be provided in the GST Council.

The implementation of GST will replace the plethora of indirect taxes levied by states and the centre with just one tax. Under the GST regime, both the centre and states will have powers to tax supply of goods and services from primary stage to final consumption. The new GST system is expected to help all stakeholder including governments, consumers and business by preventing leakage, cascading of taxes and lowering the incidence of tax.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,522.10 up by 3.00 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 5,544.20 and 5,510.05. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ranbaxy up by 8.83%, DLF up by 3.59%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.10%, Ambuja Cements up by 1.97%, and Tata Motors up by 1.90%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 3.57%, Sun Pharmaceuticals down by 3.00%, ONGC down by 2.07%, Indusind Bank down by 1.99% and PNB down by 1.82% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite surged 9.86 points or 0.48% to 2,056.64, Hang Seng increased 139.27 points or 0.65% to 21,728.11, Nikkei 225 soared 99.16 points or 0.72% to 13,924.10, Seoul Composite strengthened 15.78 points or 0.84% to 1,894.11 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 3.92points or 0.05% to 7,928.39.

Markets in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore remained shut for the trade today.