Sensex opens higher, Nifty50 above 9,150 ahead of F&O expiry

NEW DELHI: Benchmark indices opened on a positive note on Thursday, tracking mixed global cues, ahead of expiry of March futures and options series contarcts. Clearance of four GST legislations in Lok Sabha the lifted market sentiment, but global concerns including concerns related to Brexit weighed on the indices.

At 9.30 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 75.88 points, or 0.26 per cent, higher at 29,607.31. SBI rose 1.48 per cent to Rs 292 on BSE. It was followed by Adani Ports, Larsen & Toubro, ONGC and Reliance Industries, which gained up to 1.08 per cent. On the flip side, Axis Bank , Tata Motors and Bharti Airtel remained some index stocks that fell up to 1 per cent.

The NSE barometer advanced 16.50 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 9,160.30.

The market-wide rollovers stood at 58 per cent till Wednesday, which were lower than average rollovers of 60 per cent seen during the comprable period of last three series. Nifty futures rollover at 57 per cent on the D-1 were a bit higher, compared with the average rollovers of 55 per cent in the last three series.
Edelweiss Securities in a note said that the much anticipated regulations on taxation on investments from tax havens which comes into effect from April 1 will have some bearing on the expiry session.

"On one side, the domestic arbitrageurs are willing to roll at lower levels, on the other short roll positions of FIIs are showing reluctance to roll at current low levels. Coming back to the taxation issue, some portion of long roll positions of FIIs have been converted into cash during the series. Also the compulsory FII short roll arbitrage positions will roll irrespective of low levels. With many moving legs at the background, we maintain a cautious stance on albeit with a negative bias owing to low roll levels," the brokerage said.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley introduced four items of legislation that, among other things, provide for a peak GST rate of 40 per cent and the setting up of an authority to protect consumers from profiteering by businesses. The four Bills—on Central GST, Integrated-GST, Union Territory-GST and compensation — were tabled in the Lok Sabha and will be taken up for discussion by the House on Wednesday.

Provisional data showed DIIs bought Rs 1,283 crore worth of equities on Wednesday. FPIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 461 crore, taking their total net investment to Rs 30,787 crore this month.
Global markets: Asian markets across Japan, China, Korea and Hong Kong were trading mixed.