Benchmarks wipe early losses to trade in green; Sensex reclaims 20,300 level

Wiping early losses and reversing direction, benchmark equity indices are trading in green on account of some bargain buying by investors at lower levels. Near day’s high point, both Sensex and Nifty are trading past the crucial 20,300 and 6,000 levels respectively, with modest gains of close to 0.15%. Going through rounds of volatility during the session, benchmarks have now shifted gears to trade in green mainly on the back of strong gains in stocks from Consumer Durable, Auto and Healthcare counters. Additionally, buying in Realty, Public Sector Undertaking and Fast Moving Consumer Goods counters have also contributed to some recovery.

Dismal set of macro-economic data combined with speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve is on course to start reducing its stimulus as early as December, mainly got the markets in pressure for seventh straight session. On the macro-front, while the retail inflation measured in terms of consumer price index (CPI) rose to 10.09% in October, entering double digits after seven months, industrial production grew way below expectation at two per cent in September. Meanwhile, on the global front, mixed signals from Federal Reserve officials which raised fresh concerns about an imminent rollback of the U.S. central bank's asset-buying stimulus have dragged Asian pacific shares lower on Wednesday. This dour mood looks set to carry over into Europe. Closer home, with this, the market breadth on BSE remains negative. Out of 2, 2250 stocks traded, 1034 stocks are advancing against 1080 stocks declining, while 136 shares remained unchanged on the BSE.       

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20306.58, up by 24.67 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 20,345.81 and 20,224.91. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; while BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.06%, while Small cap index down by 0.08%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.01%, Auto up by 0.74%, Healthcare up by 0.73%, Power up by 0.69% and Metal up by 0.47%. While, Bankex down by 0.40%, Capital Goods down by 0.08% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.83%, Hindalco Inds up by 2.47%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.14%, Tata Motors up by 2.10%, and BHEL up by 1.71%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 1.92%, SSLT down by 1.64%, Gail India down by 1.61%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.36% and HDFC Bank down by 1.35% 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 6,027.80, up by 9.75 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 6,034.25 and 5,994.25. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declining stocks on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 2.97%, Hindalco up by 2.83%, Tata Motors up by 2.46%, JP Associates up by 2.16% and Hindustan Unilever up by 2.00%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 1.88%, SSLT down by 1.67%, GAIL India down by 1.64%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.46%, and HDFC Bank down by 1.18% were the major loser on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in red; Nikkei 225 down by 0.15%, Shanghai Composite down by 1.68%, Taiwan Weighted down by 1.11%, Seoul Composite down by 1.37%, KLSE Composite down by 1.60%, Straits Times down by 0.42%, Hang Seng down by 1.55% and Jakarta Composite down by 1.89%.