Markets slips further, decline in bluechips drag

The Indian markets have dipped further in the mid morning session and traders continue to book profit on the global worries and ahead of the monthly inflation data to be announced later in the day. Though, there is some resistance seen in the beaten down IT and technology stocks but the cuts in heavy weight Reliance Industries is weighing down the markets. However, all eyes are on the inflation numbers for December and as per expectation, if it falls around 7 percent the movements may turn towards north. The fertilizers sector is buzzing since morning on some reports that government is going to consider hike in urea prices ahead of state elections. Stocks like RCF up by 2.64%, Coromandel International has surged by 6.56% and Chambal Fertilizers was up by 0.55%.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16069.50, down by 85.12 points or 0.53%. The index has touched a high and a low of 16127.11 and 16037.60 respectively. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The broader indices were mixed at this point of time; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.54% while the small cap index was trading up by 0.14%.

Most of the sectoral gauges were in red on the BSE, the top losers were Oil & Gas down by 1.34%, Capital Goods down by 1.30%, Bankex down by 1.30%, Health care down by 1.08%, Consumer Durables down by 1.06%.

On the flip side IT was up by 1.45% and TECk was up by 1.26%.

The top gainers of the Sensex were TCS up by 1.93%, Infosys up by 1.47%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.40%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.33% and Tata Power was up by 1.25%.

On the other hand the top losers were Sun Pharma down by 2.28%, HDFC Bank down by 2.19%, L&T down by 2.09%, Tata Motors was down by 2.06% and Reliance Industries has lost 1.86%.

Meanwhile, in its bid to not only bring Indian ports on a par with the best international ports in terms of performance and capacity but also make it capable to handle the expected traffic of about 2500 million tonnes (MT) by 2020, the central government has embarked upon expanding capacity of Indian ports to 3200 MT by attracting investments to the tune of Rs 287,000 core. GK Vasan, Union Minister of Shipping opined that the government aims to enhance the current capacity of ports, which is little over 1,000 MT with 13 centre-owned major and about 200 non-major ports, on par with best global ports.

The Shipping Minister while addressing the valedictory function of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Paradip Port Trust at Paradip in Odisha stated that it is the first major port on the East Coast commissioned after Independence which handled around 56 million metric tonnes of traffic during 2010-11 comprising of 31.22 million tonnes of import cargo and 24.81 million tonnes of export cargo. The Port had embarked upon an ambitious plan to enhance its capacity to 251 MMTPA by taking up several capacity addition projects, strengthening the rail-road connectivity, and mechanizing / modernizing the existing facilities to meet the requirement of industries.

The capacity of Paradip Port is expected to reach 251 million metric tonnes per annum by the year 2020, as some of the capacity addition projects under execution are deepening of channel to handle 1,25,000 DWT vessels at an estimated cost of Rs 293.36 crore, which is expected to create a capacity addition of 5 million tonnes per annum, construction of deep draught iron ore berth and coal berth on BOT basis at an estimated cost of Rs 1,070 crore, which would add a capacity of 20 MMTPA.

Some of the major projects that have been scripted for execution in the future include construction of western dock system at an estimated cost of Rs 2,822 crore which is envisaged to create a capacity of 75 MMTPA, mechanization of east quay at an estimated cost of Rs 917 crore, leading to a capacity addition of 14 MMTPA.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,840.60, down by 25.40 points or 0.52%. The index has touched a high and a low of 4,852.05 and 4,827.05 respectively.  There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were TCS up by 2.36%, Infosys up by 1.75%, HCL Tech up by 1.65%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.53% and Bharti Airtel was up by 1.46%.

On the other hand, RPower down by 3.24%, PNB down by 2.68%, JP Associates down by 2.56%, Sun Pharma down by 2.55% and Kotak Bank down by 2.55% were the top losers on the index.

All the Asian markets continue to trade lower; Shanghai Composite was down by 0.43%, Hang Seng was down by 0.95%, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.82%, Nikkei 225 was down by 1.53%, Straits Times lost 1.33%, Seoul Composite was down by 1.21% and Taiwan Weighted was lower by 0.77%.