Benchmarks turn choppy after a positive start

The Indian equity markets have made a positive start on the back of a firming trend in the Asia region amid covering up of short positions by speculators. But, it turned in the red led by losses in Reliance Industries, L&T and Tata Motors amid initial volatility. Globally, the US markets ended lower overnight however; all the Asian equity indices were trading in the green at this point of time. Back home, on the sectoral front, fast moving consumer goods and healthcare remained the only gainers while, realty, capital goods and auto witnessed the most selling pressure, dragging down the Sensex. Meanwhile, SKS Microfinance was trading with decent gains after deputy governor of the RBI said microfinance institutions would be allowed to borrow up to $10 million from overseas markets. However, the broader indices too were struggling to get some traction and the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 576 shares on the gaining side against 919 shares on the losing side while 75 shares remained unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex opened at 15,436.12; about 57 points higher compared to its previous closing of 15,379.34, and has touched a high and a low of 15,448.13 and 15,289.95 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 15,304.28 down by 75.06 points or 0.49%. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a negative start with 36.69% stocks advancing against 58.54% declines. The broader indices too were trading in the red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices declined by 0.69% and 0.47% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, FMCG up by 0.79% and HC up by 0.06%. While, Realty down by 1.38%, CG down by 1.30%, Auto down by 1.18%, Bankex down by 1.11% and Metal down by 1.11% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 1.55%, ONGC up by 1.31%, HUL up by 0.93%, BHEL up by 0.82% and Tata Power up by 0.46%.

On the flip side, Jaiprakash Associates was down by 4.49%, Jindal Steel was down by 1.91%, Tata Motors was down by 1.86%, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.69% and Tata Steel was down by 1.67% were the top losers on the Sensex.

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 opened at 4,635.80; about 22 points higher compared to its previous closing of 4,613.10, and has touched a high and a low of 4,637.25 and 4,585.45 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 4,587.45, lower by 25.65 points or 0.56%. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ONGC up by 1.50%, ITC up by 1.29%, GAIL up by 1.28%, HUL up by 0.83% and SAIL up by 0.72%.

On the flip side, Jaiprakash Associates down by 4.85%, Axis Bank down by 3.01%, L&T down by 2.17%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.10% and Tata Motors down by 2.06%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was up 3.45 points or 0.16% to 2,221.68, Hang Seng was up 98.40 points or 0.54% to 18,168.61, Jakarta Composite was up 7.25 points or 0.19% to 3,777.54, Nikkei 225 was up 44.67 points or 0.54% to 8,340.79, Straits Times was up 1.89 points or 0.07% to 2,619.98, Seoul Composite was up 16.17 points or 0.91% to 1,793.10 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 31.13 points or 0.47% to 6,664.46.