Benchmarks continue lackluster trade; Nifty holds 6650 mark

Indian equity benchmarks continued its lackluster trade hovering near the neutral line in the late afternoon session. The markets started the trade on firm note as study showed that European companies are upbeat and keen to invest in India despite challenges faced by the economy. The mood got cautious after HSBC survey stated that private sector activity among emerging market economies was broadly stagnant for the second successive month in April, indicating falling output in India, China, Brazil and Russia. Traders were seen piling up positions in Bankex, Consumer Durables and IT stocks, while selling was witnessed in Realty, FMCG and HealthCare sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Union Bank of India was trading in red after the state-run lender reported a 26.6% drop in its net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) and Financial Technologies (India) (FTIL) were trading in red after its promoter Jignesh Shah was arrested by the EoW of Mumbai Police for his alleged involvement in the Rs 5,600-crore National Spot Exchange (NSEL) scam.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green, while the European markets too traded on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,650 and 22,300 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1157:1402 while 143 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22318.87, down by 5.03 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 22,443.13 and 22277.04. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed at this point of time; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.24%, while Small cap index up by 0.19%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 0.49%, Consumer Durables up by 0.47%, IT up 0.35%, Auto up by 0.28% and TECK up by 0.16% while, Realty down by 1.01%, FMCG down by 0.74%, HealthCare down by 0.25, Power down by 0.16% and  PSU down by 0.08% were the top losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 1.79%, Cipla up by 1.74%, Tata Motors up by 1.12%, ICICI Bank up by 1.08% and Gail India up 0.96%.

On the flip side, ITC down by 1.31%, HDFC down by 1.07%, Tata Power down by 1.04%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.02% and Sun Pharma down by 0.78% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, in order to boost the construction of low cost airports to meet the demand of air travel, Finance Ministry is preparing an agreement which will allow infrastructure debt funds (IDFs) to lend to firms developing airports on the basis of public-private-partnership (PPP) model.

According to new agreement, IDFs can reach out to the project promoters in case there is a problem with the developers. Project promoters are government organizations such as Airports Authority of India which awards projects to infrastructure companies (public or private contractors) on a PPP basis.

The government is planning to build nearly 200 low-cost airports in the next 20 years to expand connectivity to Tier-II and Tier-III cities. The non-metro airports presently account for only about 30% of the total air traffic, which is expected to increase to 45% in the next few years.

With an aim to boost the infrastructure development in the country, the government has set up IDF mechanism to allow refinancing of bank loans to infrastructure projects for longer toner at lower cost. Presently, infrastructure companies which implement infrastructure projects on PPP basis depend primarily on bank lending, which is not available for long term.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,657.60, up by 5.05 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 6,688.40 and 6,638.55. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Wipro up by 1.81%, Cipla up by 1.74%, Tata Motors up by 1.36%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.33% and BHEL up by 1.29%.

On the flip side, BPCL down by 1.55%, Lupin down by 1.52%, ITC down by 1.43%, Jindal Steel down by 1.20% and Tata Power down by 1.11% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng up by 0.42%, Nikkei 225 advanced 0.93%, Straits Times added 0.30%, Shanghai Composite added 0.26%, Taiwan Weighted gained 0.42% and Jakarta Composite was up by 0.16%.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.51%, Germany’s DAX added 0.61% and UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.45%.