Domestic bourses trade higher on February F&O expiry session

Expanding its gaining streak for fourth straight session, Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on F&O series expiry day. The expiry is scheduled today as the markets will be closed on Thursday due to Mahashivratri. Sentiments remained up-beat as Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 423.41 crore on February 25, 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

However, gains remained capped as global cues remained sluggish with the US markets ending the lackluster trading session with modest cuts and traders avoided any major bets ahead to the release of some key economic data later in the week. The Asian markets too were trading mostly lower at this point of time, though the losses are marginal but the regional indices are concerned that the world’s second-largest economy China is slowing as financial stresses increase.

Back home, stocks related to NBFC counter remained on buyers’ radar as the Reserve Bank of India moved closer to granting new banking licences as a panel headed by former RBI governor Bimal Jalan finalized a list of firms for the central bank to consider. On the sectoral front, consumer durables, capital goods and power witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while metal, realty and oil and gas remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 874 shares on the gaining side against 562 shares on the losing side while 70 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 20869.61; about 17 points higher compared to its previous closing of 20852.47, and touched a high and a low of 20939.27 and 20860.02 respectively. The index is currently trading at 20918.09, up by 65.62 points or 0.31%. There were 19 stocks advancing against 10 declines and one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 58.03% stocks advancing against 37.32% declines. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up was by 0.17% and Small cap gained 0.35%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 1.06%, Capital Goods up by 0.87%, Power up by 0.80%, Healthcare up by 0.69% and FMCG up by 0.66%, while Metal down by 0.84%, Realty down by 0.57%, PSU down by 0.36% and Oil & Gas down by 0.12% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.39%, BHEL up by 1.10%, SBI up by 1.02%, ITC up by 0.99% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.78%. On the flip side, SSLT was down by 1.92%, Coal India was down by 1.52%, Tata Steel was down by 1.14%, ONGC was down by 0.83% and  Tata Power was down by 0.62% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a bid to improve the country’s tax administration, the Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC) Chairman Parthasarathi Shome has asserted that TARC’s proposed reforms will be mainly focused on expansion of tax and taxpayers’ base. Tax administration has to be cost effective and efficient and TARC’s recommendations will help to correct anomalies and approaches of a system that increases compliance. The TARC chairman further added that the commission has been studying the existing organisational structure and systemic processes to enhance tax administration’s capacity and skill base so that it can handle increasing tax base with greater efficiency, swiftness and lesser disputes.

The commission has planned to provide its recommendations through five reports and the first report will be submitted to the Government in May. Referring to TARC’s first report, Parthasarathi Shome asserted that first report would suggest various changes such as strengthening of workforce, capacity building, use of information technology, fixing of responsibility and accountability to bring down compliance cost and improve administration’s productivity. The TARC in its first report would also recommend measures for minimising disputes, simplified and timely disbursal of duty drawback, export incentives, improving services and taxpayers’ education programme.

The TARC Chairman further added that in next four more reports after the first, the commission would recommend steps to improve cross border information exchange and functional measures to enhance information sharing among the enforcement agencies. Furthermore, it would also provide analytical tools to prevent tax and economic offences.

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,202.45; about 2 point higher as compared to its previous closing of 6,200.05, and has touched a high and a low of 6,222.90 and 6,202.10 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,217.05, up by 17.00 points or 0.27%. There were 20 stocks advancing against 20 declines and two stocks remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Kotak Bank up by 1.54%, Sun Pharma up by 1.41%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 1.11%, Lupin up by 1.07% and BHEL up by 1.00%. On the flip side, NMDC down by 1.82%, SSLT down by 1.59%, JP Associate down by 1.58%, Coal India down by 1.50% and UltraTech Cement down by 1.32% were the top losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite increased by 2.84 points or 0.14% to 2,037.06, Hang Seng gained 41.69 points or 0.19% to 22,358.89, Seoul Composite surged 1.87 points or 0.10% to 1,966.73 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 40.70 points or 0.47% to 8,616.32.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite slipped 26.45 points or 0.58% to 4,550.84, KLSE Composite decreased by 6.22 points or 0.34% to 1,827.53, Nikkei 225 tumbled by 53.03 points or 0.35% to 14,998.57 and Straits Times was down by 14.76 points or 0.48% to 3,088.86.