Trade remains rangebound; small cap stocks move higher

The Indian equity markets are trying hard to recover but the consistent profit booking is hindering the upmoves in the markets, while some resistance is seen in the IT  due to pressure on the Indian currency on European worries and few defensive sectors, on the same time metals and other rate sensitives’ are witnessing sell-off. The weak global cues are weighing down on the domestic markets. Meanwhile, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has floated a pre-consultation paper on exit policy for telcos. The regulator on the basis of the inputs is contemplating to issue a consultation paper on exit-policy for the telecom service providers soon, however most of the telecom companies are trading lower. Sugar companies were in jubilant mood after getting a clean chit from CCI. Bajaj Hindusthan was up by 0.75% and Shree Renuka Sugars was up by 1.69%,

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 15,717.03, down by 131.77 points or 0.83%. The index has touched a high and a low of 15,841.40 and 15,678.30 respectively.  There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.14% while the small cap index was trading up by 0.42%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.41%, Power up by 0.37%, HC up by 0.04% and Realty was up by 0.01%.

While, Metal down by 1.55%, Auto down by 1.28%, Bankex down by 0.91%, Oil & gas down by 0.88%, CG down by 0.72% and FMCG down by 0.64% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 0.98%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.95%, BHEL up by 0.88%, DLF up by 0.62% and Infosys was up by 0.62%.

On the flip side, Jaiprakash Associates down by 2.35%, ICICI Bank down by 0.79%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.76%, Hindalco Industries down by 0.67% and Sterlite Inds was down by 0.58% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Sugar manufacturing associations and their members operating in the industry, which were accused of alleged cartelization and price manipulation by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), can now heave a sigh of relief as the competition regulator has given a clean chit to them. CCI, acting on Director General’s report which highlighted that some major sugar companies were rigging prices of the sweetener by forming cartels, came to the inference that there was no price cartel.

Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), National Sugar Mills Co-operative Federation, and some private sugar firms like Shree Renuka Sugars, DCM Shriram Consolidated, Bajaj Hindustan and Mawana Sugar had received notices from the CCI earlier, whose suo-motu action charged them of cartelization and price manipulation. In order to prevent prices from falling below production cost, the competition regulator suspected that industry members had decided to increase the ex-factory price of sugar by 4-6%.

Arguing that the sweeteners’ prices were market driven and monitored by government regulations, the sugar associations and companies said that the sugar industry in Indian is highly fragmented with around 620 small-to-big production units in the nation, thus it becomes increasingly difficult for a few people to dictate prices.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,708.45, lower by 38.45 points or 0.81%. The index has touched a high and a low of 4,747.55 and 4,695.45 respectively.  There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 declining stocks on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were RPower up by 1.97%, Siemens up by 1.13%, Reliance Infra up by 1.10%, BHEL up by 1.06% and Tata Power was up by 0.98%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.17%, Sesa Goa was down by 2.60%, Tata Motors was down by 2.29%, Jindal Steel was down by 2.10% and BPCL was down by 1.95% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; however Shanghai Composite has bounced back and was trading in green, up by 1.42%.

On the other hand, Hang Seng plunged by 0.92%, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.38%, Straits Times lost 0.96%, Seoul Composite declined by 0.89% and Taiwan Weighted slid by 0.61%.