Benchmarks continue to trade in green

Benchmarks pared some early morning gains and were trading in a narrow range in late-morning session. Investor’s sentiments got some support as the rupee continued to strengthen against the US dollar on hopes of strong inflows. The partially convertible rupee was at 62.16, up 24 paise, against its previous close of 62.41 per dollar. However, gains on up - side remained capped as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued a circular asking the stock exchanges to monitor the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosures being made by corporate.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mixed, Japanese market was down as the yen strengthened against the dollar, poised for the first drop in four days. Back home, traders were buying, Realty, Capital Goods and Metal while selling were seen in FMCG and IT on the BSE. Banking sector edged higher despite the credit rating agency Moody’s turning negative towards India and its banking system. The non sectoral aviation pack too was in jubilant mood on report that the domestic airlines flew 50.08 lakh passengers in October this year, up by almost 10 percent increase over the 45.55 lakh passengers carried by them in the same period last year. Jet Airways, Spicejet and the defunct Kingfisher, all were up by over 3% in early trade

The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1032:616. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,900 and 6,200 levels respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20920.84, up by 70.10 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 20934.40 and 20852.87. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.65% and Small cap index gained 0.42%

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.23%, Capital Goods up by 1.09%, Metal up by 0.91%, Oil & Gas up by 0.86%, and Bankex up by 0.45%, while FMCG down by 0.19%, and IT down by 0.07%, were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco Industries up by 3.95%, Jindal Steel up by 2.29%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.87%, L&T up by 1.63%, and Bharti Airtel up by 1.58%. On the flip side, TCS was down by 1.07%, HDFC Bank was down by 0.53%, Bajaj Auto was down by 0.46%, ITC was down by 0.45%, and Coal India was down by 0.42%, were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Empowered Committee of state finance ministers has decided to keep petroleum and alcohol out of the proposed Goods and Service Tax (GST) citing that these were the main sources of income for states. The government, in its revised draft of the constitution amendment bill, had proposed that fuel and liquor should be brought under the ambit of GST. The committee is of the view that if alcohol and petroleum are included in GST, it would decline the revenues of the states.

Further, the committee has also decided that there should not be a provision for certain goods in GST bill, which was declared by the government as goods with special importance. The Committee also expressed need for reservation on restriction of powers of the proposed GST council to recommend any special provisions, like an exemption from tax to a state without the Centre government permission. Furthermore, the committee is also planning to set up an independent mechanism to pay compensation to states that stood to lose with the introduction of the GST. Moreover, the states are also opposing subsuming of entry taxes levied on goods entering from other states. 

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 6,206.75 up by 17.75 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 6,210.40 and 6,186.15. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.87%, Jindal Steel up by 2.25%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.85%, JP Associates up by 1.66%, and Cairn up by 1.54%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.07%, Kotak Bank down by 0.80%, ITC down by 0.66%, Bajaj-Auto down by 0.62%, and Coal India down by 0.55%,  were the top losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite was down by 1.75 points or 0.08% to 2,195.46, Jakarta Composite was down by 15.74 points or 0.36% to 4,377.85, Nikkei 225 plunged by 97.13  points or 0.64% to 15,067.48, Straits Times lost 7.87 points or 0.25% to 3,195.62.

On the other hand Hang Seng gained 71.49 points or 0.30% to 23,731.55, KLSE Composite added 15.02 points or 0.84% to 1,807.41, Seoul Composite gained 16.05 points or 0.80% to 2,026.86, and Taiwan Weighted gained 59.22 points or 0.72% to 8,249.30.