Benchmarks trade lower tracking weak Asian counterparts

The Indian equity markets have extended its losses for the third consecutive session on Thursday, with Sensex breaching its crucial 15,700 mark on sustained selling by funds amid a weakening trend on other Asian bourses. Global cues too remained unsupportive as US markets plunged overnight on getting worrying news from the ECB that its overnight deposits hit another record and continent's banks parked a record $590.72 billion with it overnight while, most of the Asian peers were trading in the red at this point of time. Back home, investors remained on sidelines as it being the F&O series expiry day. Meanwhile, about seven IPOs came in under SEBI scanner, citing wide price fluctuation on listing day. Taksheel Solutions and Tijaria Polypipes tanked 5 percent each. Onelife was down 14 percent and Brooks Labs plunged 7 percent. PG Electroplast crashed 16 percent. On the sectoral front, Consumer durables, metal, power and auto stocks led the fall while, healthcare remained the lone gainer on the index. The broader indices too were struggling to get some traction and trading in the red at this point of time. The market breadth has made a negative start; there were 591 shares on the losing side against 882 shares on the gaining side while 73 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 15,658.94; about 69 points lower compared to its previous closing of 15,727.85, and has touched a high and a low of 15,692.64 and 15,619.00 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 15,646.40, down by 81.45 points or 0.52%. There were just 5 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a negative start with 38.23% stocks advancing against 57.05% declines. The broader indices too were trading in the red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were down by 0.33% and 0.40% respectively. 

The only gaining sectoral index on the BSE was, HC up by 0.10%. While, CD down by 0.93%, Metal down by 0.90%, Power down by 0.64%, Auto down by 0.64% and CG down by 0.60% were the top losers on the index.

ONGC up by 0.52%, Cipla up by 0.47%, BHEL up by 0.41%, TCS up by 0.23% and Jaiprakash Associates up by 0.19% remained the top gainers on the Sensex. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 3.18%, Tata Power down by 1.74%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.98%, Tata Steel down by 0.91% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.82% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, government has passed a bill to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in dealing with their liquidity problems and to regulate the factoring business. The Rajya Sabha passed the Regulation of Factors (Assignment of Receivables) Bill 2011, in the extended winter session after the bill got nod of Lok Sabha earlier.

Namo Narain Meena, the Minister of State (MoS) for Finance, concluding the discussion on the Bill opined that various committees had recommended development of factoring business in the country, especially for the MSMEs.  The MSME units face various payment problems which will be mitigated by this bill.

The Reserve Bank of India will act as the regulator of Factors and the bill will be applicable to all types of industry whether it is small, medium or big.  The minister also said that the government had accepted suggestions of the Standing Committee and then held consultations with the banking sector also in this regard.

High borrowing costs have impacted the micro, small and medium enterprises the most. Though the government has in the recent past restructured loans of Rs 34,000 crore for big corporates, the MSMEs of the country have been largely overlooked.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 4,681.50; about 24 points lower compared to its previous closing of 4,705.80, and has touched a high and a low of 4,693.50 and 4,672.40 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 4,681.45, down by 24.35 points or 0.52%. There were 9 stocks advancing against 41 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BPCL up by 1.04%, Dr Reddy up by 0.56%, RPower up by 0.49%, Cipla up by 0.47% and ONGC up by 0.34%.

Jindal Steel down by 3.56%, RCom down by 2.29%, Tata Power down by 2.07%, Siemens by 1.23% and ACC was down by 1.16%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Hang Seng was down 168.77 points or 0.91% to 18,349.90, Jakarta Composite was down 16.48 points or 0.44% to 3,752.74, Nikkei 225 was down 50.68 points or 0.60% to 8,372.94, Seoul Composite was down 0.15 points or 0.01% to 1,824.97 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 2.32 points or 0.03% to 7,054.35.

On the flip side, Straits Times was up 3.22 points or 0.12% to 2,669.47 and Shanghai Composite was up by 7.22 points or 0.33% to 2,177.23.