Trade remain lackluster; broader indices outperform

Markets continue to trade lackluster in the noon session with no supportive cues from the domestic front, though the global cues remain firm with regional markets maintaining their gains. Local traders are opting to book profit at higher levels restricting any upside with just scrip specific action keeping the markets ticking. There is some concern related to the weakness in rupee against the dollar, which is trading lower since morning on fresh dollar demand from the importers. Market participants have even overlooked the data that foreign investors pumped in nearly Rs 7,000 crore ($1.12 billion) in the Indian equity market since the beginning of the month on hopes that Fed would be delaying its tapering. Sectorally the capital goods was surging with gains of over 4 percent after the industry heavyweight L&T came up with a better than expected numbers during the weekend. In non sectoral gauge aviation was giving a mixed response to the report that the domestic traffic grew for the second consecutive month in September despite steep fare increases by most airlines, while the IT index was the laggard suffering profit booking.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20866.95 down by 15.94 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 20970.92 and 20831.17. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming the benchmarks with quiet a margin; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.86%, while Small cap index surged by 1.07%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 4.04%, Realty up by 3.21%, Auto up by 1.60%, Metal up by 1.35% and Bankex up by 0.71%. On the other hand IT down by 1.46%, TECk down by 1.09%, Consumer Durables down by 0.82%, FMCG down by 0.67% and Oil & Gas down by 0.12% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were L&T up by 5.92%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.57%, SSLT up by 3.23%, Hindalco Inds up by 3.14% and Tata Motors up by 2.22%. On the flip side, TCS down by 2.42%, Jindal Steel down by 2.35%, ITC down by 1.60%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.19% and BHEL down by 1.18% were the major losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, an Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers, in its scheduled meeting will deliberate the contentious issues concerning to taxation of liquor and petroleum products. While the centre wants that liquor and petroleum products should come under the GST and in a revised draft of the Constitution Amendment Bill circulated to the states last month had proposed inclusion of petroleum and liquor under GST, the states are keen to retain their power to tax these products as they are major sources of their revenue.

The issue has already been discussed by a sub-committee of officials, set up to study the recommendations of Parliamentary Standing Committee and the revised draft of the Constitutional Amendment Bill and suggest ways for reconciling different positions. The report of the sub-committee headed by Jammu & Kashmir Finance Minister A R Rather, will now be placed before the Ministers for discussion.

The government circulated the revised draft after incorporating the proposals of the standing committee of finance, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha, which had suggested minimum exclusion to ensure an integrated, comprehensive and seamless GST regime. The industry too has been demanding that no item should be kept out of GST to ensure that there are no breaks in the supply chain.

Roll-out of GST, which aims to unify the country into a common market to remove barriers in the movement of goods across states and empowering the Centre and States to simultaneously tax supply of goods and services, had missed several deadlines due to differences between states and the Centre over contentious issue of CST compensation and design of the GST structure.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,193.45 up by 4.10 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 6,218.95 and 6,176.70. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 decline on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were L&T up by 5.99%, DLF up by 5.37%, IDFC up by 3.94%, Maruti up by 3.81% and SSLT was up by 3.57%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 2.62%, TCS down by 2.60%, HCL Tech down by 2.34%, ITC down by 1.66% and HDFC down by 1.34% were the major losers on the index

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in Green; Shanghai Composite was up by 1.52%, Hang Seng was up by 0.52%, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.43%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.91%, Straits Times was up by 0.18% and Seoul Composite was up by 0.03%.

On the other hand KLSE Composite was down by 0.01% and Taiwan Weighted declined by 0.26%.