Nifty, Sensex sluggish; govt aims to make 6 PSU banks by merger

Moneycontrol Bureau11:55 am Textile policy: Cabinet along with the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs has deferred its decision to announce a new textile policy to next week, reports CNBC-TV18, quoting official sources.

However, there could some minor announcements with respect to increasing employment for the sector.

Voicing their expectations from the policy, Ajay Shankar, Former Member, NMCC said the expectation from the policy would be a focus on transformation where the labour-intensive garment sector gets support to enhance its share in the overall exports, and for this transition to happen there should be enough policy instruments. 11:45 am Debut day: Shares of Max Ventures and Industries (MVIL), a part of the USD 2 billion Max Group, started off first trade below Rs 45 (the pre-opening price) and hit an intraday low of Rs 42.75, down 5 percent. Exchanges have fixed Rs 45 as its previous close.

However, immediately the stock rebounded 5 percent to Rs 47.25 on the National Stock Exchange. More than 24 lakh shares already traded on the exchange.

Exchanges have fixed 5 percent circuit limit (on both sides) for the stock.

Max Ventures (formerly known as Capricorn Ventures) is the holding company for Max Speciality Films, an innovation leader in the speciality packaging films business. The company has also recently incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary, Max Estates, which will undertake real estate development projects.

11:30 am Defaulters: Bank of Baroda has declared its list of wilful defaulters as of March 31 2016. It has tagged 186 borrowers in the list who owe the bank a total sum of Rs 1,663 crore. The top 10 defaulters are not very common names. They owe the bank a total of Rs 712 crore. Pearl Vision is the biggest defaulter in the list owing Rs 104 crore to the bank.BoB only added 9 wilful defaulters between September 2015 and March 2016. These new defaulters increased the total amount owed to the bank by Rs 470 crore. Publicly known wilful defaulters like Kingfisher Airlines, have not been tagged by them. Although, the bank is exposed to some of those companies.11:15 am Big breaking: Reuters report says that the government is proposing to make six big PSU banks by merging 26 banks. Proposal moots SBI, PNB, Canara Bank, Union Bank, BoB, BoI to lead merger. Proposal seeks to merge Andhra Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Vijaya Bank with Bank of India and merge Syndicate, IOB & UCO Bank with Canara Bank.Don't miss: CLSA says Dr Reddy's to be double bagger in 3 yrs, stock may be re-rated

It is an absolutely flat market as investors seem to be cautious ahead of the crucial Brext vote. The Sensex is down 12.39 points at 26800.39, and the Nifty is down 7.25 points at 8212.65. About 983 shares have advanced, 1065 shares declined, and 132 shares are unchanged.

Dr Reddy's Labs, Adani Ports, HDFC Bank, TCS and ICICI Bank are top gainers while Tata Motors, Tata Steel, GAIL, HUL and NTPC are losers in the Sensex.

Gold hovered near its lowest in over a week on Wednesday as Asian stocks rose amid indications that Britain would vote to remain in the European Union.Bullion fell nearly 2 percent on Tuesday in its biggest one-day loss in a month, touching its weakest since June 10 at USD 1,264.10 an ounce. That came after two opinion polls on Monday suggested it was increasingly likely Britain would choose to stay in the EU.

A vote on June 23 by Britain to leave the 28-member EU, dubbed "Brexit," could tip Europe back into recession, putting more pressure on the global economy, thereby increasing the safe-haven appeal of bullion.