Benchmarks continue to trade in red in late morning session

Indian bourses continued to trade in red in the late morning session as the domestic and global investors turned cautious ahead of the Union Budget to be presented by the Finance Minister in the Parliament. A firming trend in the Asian region, taking a strong lead from Wall Street, in response to an upbeat outlook for the US economy by the Federal Reserve have restrained the market losses. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 645.19 crore on July 09, 2014. Meanwhile, Railway-related stocks such as Kalindee Rail, BEML, Kernex Microsystems, Stone India and Titagarh Wagons have frozen lower circuit of 5% third day in a row on BSE with no buyers on the counter after Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda presented maiden Budget on July 8, 2014. In scrip specific development, Bharti Airtel was trading higher after the company said that it would sell about 3,100 telecom towers spread across four countries in Africa to Helios Towers Africa.  Moreover, shares of Sadbhav Engineering surged as its JV bags contract worth Rs 150 crore from South West Mining.

On the global front, Asian equities rose and the dollar dipped, after the US Federal Reserve indicated it was not in a rush to end quantitative easing and begin hiking rates. Back home, stocks from Metal, Realty and Power counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from Healthcare, FMCG and Teck counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2198 stocks traded, 760 stocks advanced, while 1369 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25436.80 down by 8.01 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 25535.79 and 25402.84. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.35%, while Small cap index down by 0.70%.The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 0.73%, Realty up by 0.56%, Power up by 0.43%, PSU up by 0.28% and India Infrastructure Index up by 0.16%, while Healthcare down by 0.77%, FMCG down by 0.63%, TECk down by 0.46%, Consumer Durables down by 0.40% and IT was down by 0.35% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 2.08%, HDFC up by 1.73%, Tata Power up by 1.60%, NTPC up by 1.50% and Tata Motors up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.79%, Cipla was down by 1.53%, TCS was down by 1.27%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 1.17% and Bharti Airtel was down by 0.96% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved four- and six-laning of highways in five states. Total cost of these projects would be about Rs 13,987 crore and will cover length over 676 kilometres in states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

Project wise, the 95.38-km long four laninig project in Ambala-Kaithal section of NH 65 in Haryana will be undertaken at a cost of about Rs 1,176.48 crore. Likewise, four-laning of Yadgiri-Warangal section of NH 163 project in Andhra Pradesh will be done. After the completion of this phase, the Hyderabad and Warangal stretch covering a total length of 99.10 km will be developed into four-lane at a cost of around Rs 1,487.95 crore. Further, four-laning of Sultanpur-Varanasi section of NH 56 in Uttar Pradesh, spreading over 146.22 km, will also be completed at a cost of about Rs 1,975.83 crore. The CCEA also approved development of 26.79 km long four-laning of the Kazahakkottum-Mukkola section of National Highway (NH) 47 in Kerala at an approximate cost of Rs 587.49 crore. It also approved four-laning of 159.30-km long Bikaner-Falodi section of NH 15 in Rajasthan at an estimated cost of Rs 903.40 crore.

Further, construction of connected roads having length 150.14 km would be undertaken on Delhi-Meerut expressway. Total cost of the project would be around 7,855.87 crore and will develop six- to eight-laning of NH 24 (Hapur bypass), six laning of NH 58 (Delhi-UP border) and six-laning of NH 235 (Delhi-UP).

India needs widespread highway infrastructure to prevent the sector from becoming hurdle to its economic growth. During FY14, the NHAI has managed to award around 2,000 km of road projects as against the set target of 9,000 km, while in FY13 only 1,116 km of projects were awarded against a target of 9,500 km. Financial constraints, delay in land acquisition and environmental clearances and lack of project planning are the leading factors impacting road infrastructure development in the country.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,573.95 down by 11.05 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 7,607.25 and 7,559.40. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Coal India up by 1.93%, HDFC up by 1.62%, NTPC up by 1.43%, Tata Power up by 1.41% and Hindalco up by 1.35%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.26%, Cipla down by 1.77%, Asian Paint down by 1.54%, M&M down by 1.49% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.46% were the major losers on the index.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; Hang Seng gained 0.28%, KOSPI Index increased by 0.18%, Straits Times improved 0.25%, Jakarta Composite soared 2.02%, Shanghai Composite surged by 0.01%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added by 0.01% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.72%.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 tumbled by 0.20%.