Benchmarks witness listless trade post previous sessions' positive rally

Benchmarks witnessing some profit booking amid choppy trade after yesterday’s positive rally and currently trading marginally down on worries about the global economic condition. However, World Bank’s weak forecast for the global economy and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement that India will struggle to meet the fiscal deficit target of 4.6% for the fiscal year ending March 2012, appear to be weighing on sentiment to a notable extent. Meanwhile, TCS has tumbled by 3% post Q3 results. TCS reported an 18.26% jump in consolidated net profit to 2,802.77 crore for the quarter ended December 2011 post market hours yesterday. On sectoral front, technology, metals, FMCG and major banks' stocks were under pressure while oil & gas, realty and healthcare stocks were quite supportive. On global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in green. Back home, the market breadth favoring the negative trend; there were 1,141 shares on the gaining side against 1,208 shares on the losing side while 120 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,427.84, down by 38.21 points or 0.23%. The index has touched a high and a low of 16,517.96 and 16,414.22 respectively. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The broader indices too trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.23% while the small cap index was trading down by 0.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 2.49%, Realty up by 0.89%, Health Care up by 0.16% and Power up by 0.11%.

On the flip side IT down by 2.26%, TECk down by 1.53%, Bankex down by 1.00%, Metal down by 0.78% and Auto down by 0.63%.

The top gainers of the Sensex were RIL up by 4.09%, Tata Power up by 2.43%, DLF up by 2.30% Hero Moto Corp up by 2.04% and ONGC up by 1.91%.

On the other hand TCS down by 3.13%, M&M down by 2.90%, Wipro down by 2.34%, ICICI Bank down by 1.88% and Infosys down by 1.85% were the top loser.

Meanwhile, production of sugar in the ongoing sugar season till January 15, 2012 surged by around 19 percent to 104.5 lakh tons which is around 17 lakh tons more than the sugar production upto 15th January of last year of 87.68 lakh tons, according to the latest Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) data. Production of the sweetener has gone up around 22% over last year till date in major sugar producing states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Total number of sugar factories crushing as on 15th January, 2012 in the country was 516 as against 498 on January 15, 2011. India’s second largest sugar producing state Uttar Pradesh registered higher output till date primarily because the State Government ordered the sugar mills in the state to start their crushing much earlier than usual. Cane availability to sugar mills for crushing increased in the state as lesser cane was diverted to local sweetener for manufacturing gur which is evident from the fact that arrival of Gur in UP mandis was less by about 17% till Dec, 2011 compared to last year.

The state has so far crushed 347 lakh tons of sugarcane in comparison to 271 lakh tons of sugarcane last year upto the same period. Though the quantum of cane crushing is higher, the early crushing has affected the recovery which is lower at 8.49% till 15th January, 2012 in comparison to 8.85% last year.

The situation in India’s largest sugar producing state Maharashtra is slightly different where the cane crushing upto 15th January, 2012 was 346 lakh tons in comparison to 315 lakh tons crushed last year upto the same period. But due to higher recovery of 10.71% achieved this year as compared to 10.25% last year, the sugar production is higher.

The state is expecting lower cane yield but the increase in area under cane and much higher sugar recovery compensates for the lower yield and the production in Maharashtra may be similar or higher to last year.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,948.30, up by 19.00 points or 0.38%. The index has touched a high and a low of 4,980.65 and 4,945.35 respectively. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 3.48%, RPower up by 2.93%, IDFC up by 2.11%, DLF up by 1.97% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.88%.

On the other hand, M&M down by 4.02%, TCS down by 3.19%, Wipro down 2.77%, Axis Bank down by 2.48% and Kotak Bank down by 2.47% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in green; Shanghai Composite was down by 0.96%, Seoul Composite was down by 0.02% and Straits Times lost 0.11%.

On the other hand Hang Seng was up by 0.01%, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.08%, Nikkei 225 surged by 0.99% and Taiwan Weighted was up 0.17%.