Indian equities continue its lackadaisical trade in red

Indian equities continued its lackadaisical trade below neutral line in absence of buying among investors who stayed away amid developing pessimism in local as well as in global markets. Investors were worried about the uncertainty looming over Europe’s future and also amid the gloomy domestic macro-economic headwinds. In the fight between bulls and bears to gain control over the market, bulls were seen butchered mercilessly with bears holding the market firm giving no chance for bulls to pounce back with Sensex and Nifty tanking to 52-week low. Traders were seen selling in Realty, Bankex and Capital Goods sector.

BHEL, L&T, BEL, BEML, Crompton Greaves, Siemens, Suzlon Energy and Thermax from Capital Goods space was trading weak in red putting pressures on the market. Axis Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank, PNB, HDFC Bank and Kotak Bank from Banking sectors were seen trading weak pulling the markets down. DLF, Unitech, Godrej Properties, HDIL and DB Realty from Realty counters were trading in red exerting pressures on the market. Industry heavyweight RIL was trading firm in green helping the markets to give the much needed support. Cairn, Tata Motors, Coal India, Cipla and Ambuja Cement were trading in green helping prevent markets falling further down.

In the scrip specific development, Monnet Ispat was trading firm in green on reports that board will consider buy-back of equity shares. Borosil Glass Works was trading in green as the company has commenced its buyback offer starting from today. Jet Airways, the nation's largest private airline, was trading weak in red on reports that the company may have to shell out an additional amount of Rs 300 crore towards carbon emission tax for flying to Europe.

On the global front, all Asian markets were seen trading in red while the European markets were too trading in red on pessimistic note. Discouraging developments from Europe continued to dissuade investors amid heightened worries that potential credit ratings downgrades of several Euro-zone nations may derail progress towards resolving the region's onerous debt problem. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 4,600 and 15,300 levels, respectively. The market breadth on the BSE was in favor of declines in the ratio of 532:2122 while 100 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 15,244.13 down by 247.22 points or 1.60% after trading as high as 15,440.10 and as low as 15,190.74. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a pessimistic note; the BSE Mid cap index plunged 2.54% while Small cap plummeted 2.92%.

On the BSE sectoral space, there were no gainers while Realty down 4.18%, Bankex down 3.95%, Capital Goods down 3.94%, Power down 2.76% and PSU down 2.39% were the major losers in the space.

Tata Motors up 2.00%, Coal India up 0.93%, Cipla up 0.74%, Bharti Airtel up 0.68% and HUL up 0.56% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while BHEL down 4.66%, L&T down 4.43%, DLF down 4.36%, ICICI Bank down 4.21% and Jindal Steel down 4.05% were the major losers in the index.

Meanwhile, even as uncertainty over the Euro-zone debt crisis looms and domestic economy continues to slow, Indian government remains confident of doubling exports to $500 billion by 2013-14, with a compound average growth of 26.7% per annum. The commerce ministry’s goal in the medium-term as outlined in the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP 2009-14) is to double India’s exports of goods and services by 2014 with a long term objective of doubling India’s share in global trade by the end of 2020 through appropriate policy support.

Union Commerce Minister, Anand Sharma in his strategy for doubling exports has outlined four pronged strategy namely, Product Strategy; Market Strategy; Technologies and R&D and Building a Brand image. The strategy paper underscored that considerable growth potential is likely in engineering goods, basic chemicals and organic and inorganic chemicals, pharmaceuticals (including biotech) and electronics to boost exports.

The commerce minister also stated that the government will provide necessary policy support needed to realize the ambitious export targets for 2013-14 and beyond. The government proposes to continue the existing incentive schemes and aims to follow a stable policy environment while providing preferential access to new markets and putting in place conducive trading arrangements.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,577.00, lower by 74.60 points or 1.60% after trading as high as 4,623.15 and as low as 4,555.90. There were 10 stocks advancing against 40 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Cairn India up 2.25%, Tata Motors up 1.91%, Coal India up 1.21%, Cipla up 0.81% and Ambuja Cement up 0.62%.

Axis Bank down 7.68%, RCOM down 4.85%, BHEL down 4.80%, DLF down 4.39% and Sesa Goa down 4.35% were the major losers on the index.

Asian markets traded on a pessimistic note, Shanghai Composite declined 0.29%, Hang Seng plunged 1.18%, Jakarta Composite eased 0.09%, Nikkei 225 sank 1.26%, Straits Times plummeted 1.45%, Seoul Composite got pounded by 3.43% and Taiwan Weighted slumped 2.24%.

The European markets were trading in red with, France’s CAC 40 declining 0.34%, Germany’s DAX slumped 0.19% and Britain’s FTSE 100 sank 0.35%.