Bearish sentiments drag benchmarks lower in early trade

Sentiments continued to remain bearish on Friday’s morning trade on the back of continued selling by funds on fears of disappointing quarterly earnings and a weakening trend on other Asian bourses. All the Asian peers were trading in the red dampening the sentiments. Back home, funds and retail investors locked in gains recorded in the past few sessions amid a weakening trend overseas. On the sectoral front, software and oil and gas remained the only gainers while, metal, capital goods and auto witnessed the most selling pressure, dragging down the Sensex. Meanwhile, metal stocks fell as LMEX, a gauge of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange, dropped 0.52% on January 5, 2012. Kingfisher Airlines tanked 7% on concerns over company’s debts and shortage of funds for running operations. Group Company, United Spirits too lost 3.5%. However, ITC, Infosys, Cairn India, Reliance Industries and TCS were supporting the market. Moreover, the broader indices too were struggling to get some traction and the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 698 shares on the gaining side against 753 shares on the losing side while 52 shares remained unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex opened at 15,789.08; about 68 points lower compared to its previous closing of 15,857.08, and has touched a high and a low of 15,846.29 and 15,763.41 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 15,787.25 down by 69.83 points or 0.44%. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a negative start with 46.44% stocks advancing against 50.10% declines. The broader indices too were trading flat; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.12% while small cap index rose 0.02%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 0.32% and Oil and Gas was up by 0.11%. While, Metal down by 1.13%, CG down by 1.10%, Auto down by 0.88%, Bankex down by 0.85% and Realty down by 0.65% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 1.28%, RIL up by 0.77%, Infosys up by 0.70%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.64% and Cipla up by 0.39%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp was down by 2.50%, Bharti Airtel was down by 2.27%, Jaiprakash Associates was down by 2.15%, Sterlite Industries was down by 2.13% and ONGC was down by 2.00% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India’s urea production grew more than the target of 17.43 lakh million tonne (MT) in the month of November as it was at 0.26 lakh MT, even higher than government’s estimates of 17.69 lakh MT. Besides, government had to import 14.66 lakh MT of urea, 1.30 lakh MT from OMIFCO, Oman and 13.36 lakh MT from others, over and above the total production in November and dispatched approximately 20.98 lakh MT of both indigenous and imported urea to various states.

While availability of urea during the month of November 2011 was about 25.37 lakh MT which was adequate in all the states, sale of the fertilizer in the current season till the month under consideration was about 184.22 lakh MT, 5.49% higher as compared to sale of 174.63 lakh MT in the corresponding period of the previous year.

On the other hand, production of DAP had been less than the target by 1.6 lakh MT. Estimated production of DAP during the month was 2.27 lakh MT as against the target of 3.87 lakh MT. Besides, government had to import 6.70 lakh MT of DAP in the month and dispatched 14.32 lakh MT, which was adequate to meet the demand of the States.

Among other decontrolled fertilizers, availability of MOP during the month of November 2011 also was satisfactory at about 4.95 lakh MT. In addition 0.79 lakh MT of MAP, 1.15 lakh MT of TSP, 6.07 lakh MT of NPK and 9.08 lakh MT of MOP was imported to suffice the fertilizer need of the country.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 4,724.15; about 25 points lower compared to its previous closing of 4,749.95, and has touched a high and a low of 4,740.50 and 4,717.50 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 4,724.25, lower by 25.70 points or 0.54%. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BPCL up by 1.70%, Cairn up by 1.44%, Tata Power up by 1.12%, Kotak Bank up by 0.95% and RIL up by 0.75%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.69%, Sterlite Industries down by 2.49%, Jaiprakash Associates down by 2.33%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.32% and IDFC down by 2.09%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 6.94 points or 0.32% to 2,141.51, Hang Seng was down 263.04 points or 1.40% to 18,550.37, Jakarta Composite was down 36.68 points or 0.94% to 3,869.58, Nikkei 225 was down 100.37 points or 1.18% to 8,388.34, Straits Times was down 6.09 points or 0.22% to 2,706.93, Seoul Composite was down 31.27 points or 1.68% to 1,832.47 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 17.60 points or 0.25% to 7,113.26.