Sensex near day’s low; Nifty slips near 4,700 level

The Indian equity markets extended losses and currently trading near low point of the day following a weak Asian cues, weighed down by banks. Investors remained cautious with a negative bias following a mixed batch of economic data from the U.S. and Japan. On sectoral front sustained selling was witnessed in bank, metal, realty and oil stocks. Stocks from automobile, consumer durables, capital goods and FMCG sectors too were mostly trading weak. However, Tata Power is up 2.2% on fairly strong buying at the counter following an announcement from the company that it would buy out BP Alternative Energy Holding's 51% stake in joint venture Tata BP Solar for an undisclosed amount. On the global front markets, the Asia-Pacific region markets were trading in red. Back home, the market breadth remained downbeat; there were 834 shares on the gaining side against 1,357 shares on the losing side while 127 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 15,756.42, down by 117.53 points or 0.74%. The index has a touched a high and low of 15,887.80 and 15,730.64 respectively. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 declines on the index.

The broader indices too were trading with a loss; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices dropped 0.81% and 0.59% respectively.

The only gaining sector on the BSE was Power up by 0.52% while Bankex down 1.82%, Metal down 1.57%, Realty down 1.53%, Oil & Gas down by 1.12% and Consumer Durables (CD) down 0.89% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 2.22%, NTPC up by 1.85%, BHEL up by 0.98%, Cipla up by 0.61% and Hero MotoCorp up by 0.32%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 4.70%, ICICI Bank down 2.61%, JP Associates down 1.85%, Hindalco Industries down 1.76% and Sterlite Industries down 1.59% were the top loser on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in its bid to inject liquidity in the economy, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to purchase government securities worth Rs 12,000 crore on December 29, 2011. The central bank will conduct open market operations (OMO) for purchasing the securities through multi-security auction using the multiple price method, the apex bank said in a statement.

The move by RBI is consistent with the stance of monetary policy and based on the current assessment of prevailing and evolving liquidity conditions. The apex bank, in its mid quarter monetary policy review on December 16, 2011, had stated that OMOs would be conducted as and when considered appropriate.

The RBI statement opined that auction will be in four price methods, government security (G-Sec) maturing 2017 with a coupon of 7.49%, G-Sec maturing 2018 with a coupon of 7.83%, G-Sec maturing 2021 with 7.80% and G-Sec 2022 with 8.08%. While there is an overall aggregate ceiling of Rs 12,000 crore for all the securities in the basket put together, there is also no security-wise notified amount.

In the past month, the central bank has also purchased government securities of over Rs 24,311 crore from the money markets in three installments as part of its efforts to infuse liquidity into the system.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,705.55, lower by 44.95 points or 0.95%. The index has touched a high and low of 4,756.20 and 4,703.30 respectively. There were 7 stocks advancing against 43 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were NTPC up by 1.72%, Tata Power up by 1.66%, BHEL up by 1.12%, Ambuja Cement up by 0.61% and Cipla up by 0.45%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 4.97%, PNB down by 3.09%, ICICI Bank down 2.95%, IDFC down 2.53% and Axis Bank down by 2.32% remained the top losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite down 0.95%, Hang Seng was down by 0.84%, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.43, Straits Times was down by 0.37%, Seoul Composite was down by 0.85%, Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.40% and Nikkei 225 was down by 0.27%.