Benchmarks trade marginally in green on recovery in rupee

After a brief negative tick in the opening hour, the benchmarks have moved into the positive territory in late morning deals on the back of gains in some selected heavyweights. Investors’ sentiments got some support as the Rupee managed to regain some lost ground and was quoting at 63.71 to a Dollar. In the opening deals the Indian currency had lost 17 paise to trade at a fresh two-month low of 63.88 on strong dollar demand from importers amid weak local equities. However, gains on the up-side remained capped by food prices, the annual consumer price inflation quickened to 10.09 percent in October from 9.84 percent in September.  Also, IIP for September grew 2% compared to a contraction of by 0.7% in the corresponding period last year but was lower than expected 3%.

On the global front, all Asian markets were trading red in late morning on concern that the US Federal Reserve will soon begin scaling down its asset buying program, after Fed Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said that a reduction in US bond purchases “could very well take place” next month. Some weak economic data from the region and disappointment over Chinese leaders' failure to outline steps to curb state dominance of the economy too appear to be weighing on sentiment to a significant extent

Back home, traders were buying, Healthcare, Consumer Durables and Auto while selling were seen in Capital Goods, Bankex and PSU on the BSE. The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1033: 691. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,300 and 6,000 levels respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20330.13, up by 48.22 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 20345.81 and 20224.19. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in mix; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.61% and Small cap index lost 0.09%

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Healthcare up by 1.06%, Consumer Durables up by 1.00%, Auto up by 0.81%, Power up by 0.44%, and TECK up by 0.43%, while Capital Goods down by 0.30%,  Bankex down by 0.29%, PSU down by 0.12%,  and  Realty down by 0.02 were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 3.48%, Tata Motors up by 1.82%, BHEL up by 1.78%, Tata Steel up by 1.62%, and M&M up by 1.34%. On the flip side, SSLT down by 2.03%, Cipla down by 1.02%, L&T down by 0.99%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.87%, and Gail India down by 0.84% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Finance minister P Chidambaram at the fourth meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to the finance ministry, underscored that implementation of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act 2013 in letter and spirit would be a major task before the government.

The PFRDA Act, which was passed by Parliament on September 6 would give more teeth to the pension sector regulator basically aims to address apprehensions regarding safety and yield under the National Pension System (NPS). Meanwhile, Chidambaram highlighted that most countries were shifting from a 'defined benefit' pension system to a 'defined contribution' system to enable pension-related commitments to be sustainably discharged.

Further, endorsing the bill, Finance Minister highlighted that salient provisions of the Act related to subscriber interest including choice of pension fund manager, investment schemes to the subscriber, availability of minimum assured return schemes to be notified by the PFRDA and the option of investment. On the ground of these initiatives being relatively recent in origin, the Minister averred that work for NPS was still a work in progress and would be achieved in some time. Besides, he also emphasized the need to extend the reach of the NPS.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,029.65 up by 11.60 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 6,030.10 and 5,994.25. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 3.59%, Tata Motors up by 2.11%, Tata Steel up by 1.77%, BHEL up by 1.67%, and Hindalco up by 1.44%. On the flip side, Asian paints down by 1.97%, SSLT down by 1.95%, IDFC down by 1.61%, Axis Bank down by 1.04%, and L&T down by 0.99% were the top losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were languishing in red; Shanghai Composite down by 17.09 points or 0.80% to 2,109.68, Nikkei 225 down by 61.89 points or 0.43% to 14,532.09, Seoul Composite slid  25.47 points or 1.27% to 1,971.34, Taiwan Weighted down by 60.38 points or 0.74% to 8,135.62, Hang Seng lost 296.11 points or 1.29% to 22,605.30, KLSE Composite declined by 7.93 points or 0.44% to 1,786.87, Jakarta Composite was down by 83.77 points or 1.92% to 4,299.26, and Straits Times was down by 12.57 points or 0.40% to 3,168.22.