Markets continue to trade range-bound

18 Nov 2014 Evaluate
The Indian equity markets continue to trade in a narrow range with positive bias in early noon deals on sustained by foreign funds and retail investors. Sentiments got some support with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that inflation has moderated and global fuel price has eased and hoped that Reserve Bank of India would prune interest rates as it will give a ‘good fillip’ to the Indian economy. However, gains remained capped as traders opted to book profits off the table at higher levels. Meanwhile, the rupee weakened to its lowest level in a little over a month as private oil firms bought dollars while a broadly stronger dollar also hurt sentiment for the local unit. The partially convertible rupee was at 61.84 per dollar compared with its close of 61.73/74 on Monday. 

On the global front, Japanese Nikkei rebounded from yesterday’s slump and was trading higher by over two percent, boosted by deal activity worth $100 billion in the US and anticipation of European monetary stimulus. However, Chinese Shanghai was trading weak after the launch of direct connect project which connects stock markets of China and Hong Kong.

Back home, shares of sugar manufacturers remained in demand and were trading higher by up to 10% on the BSE on media reports that the government is likely to subsidise the production of ethanol for blending with petrol. On the sectoral front, infrastructure, metal and power witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while software, realty and fast moving consumer goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were trading with traction, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1572 shares on the gaining side against 1,043 shares on the losing side while 109 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28210.79, up by 32.91 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 28177.30 and 28282.85. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.58%, while Small cap index up by 0.96%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Infrastructure up by 1.33%, Metal up by 1.31%, Power up by 1.21%, Capital Goods up by 1.03% and Healthcare up by 0.62%, while IT down by 0.49%, Realty down by 0.38% and FMCG down by 0.36% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sesa Sterlite up by 3.64%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.64%, GAIL India up by 1.52%, NTPC up by 1.44% and Tata Steel up by 1.24%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.53%, Cipla down by 0.84%, Tata Motors down by 0.64%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.64% and Infosys down by 0.60% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the total sugar production is estimated at 25 million tonnes in the new sugar season starting October 2014-September 2015, which is similar to production of sugar in the previous sugar season. In-fact, the latest estimate of department of food is higher than first advance estimate of 24.5 million tonne and the increased production is estimated due to higher acreage in Maharashtra and Karnataka and carries over stock of 3-4 lakh tones.  

In the ongoing season October 2013-September 2014, the production of sugar has been around 24.3 mn tonnes. Meanwhile, according to first advance estimates released by the ministry of agriculture, production of sugarcane is estimated at 342.79 million tonnes, though lower by 7.23 million tonnes than the last year.

However, fearing surplus production, which could push lower the prices, the ministry proposes to continue with export of raw sugar and continue with the proposed subsidy for coming two seasons. 

Nevertheless, there are reports that like earlier, sugar may not be exported under open general license and this free but the quantity of sugar is expected to be curbed at 10-12 lakh tonne while the amount of subsidy will hover around RS 3,000-3,000 per metric tonne.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8436.50, up by 5.75 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 8422.55 and 8454.50. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sesa Sterlite up by 3.51%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.49%, PNB up by 2.13%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 1.55% and NTPC up by 1.41%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.91%, DLF down by 1.22%, Cipla down by 0.98%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.88% and Infosys down by 0.83% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 4.55 points or 0.25% to 1,811.03, Straits Times gained 14.19 points or 0.43% to 3,302.86, Jakarta Composite increased 20.3 points or 0.4% to 5,074.24, KOSPI Index surged 23.38 points or 1.2% to 1,967.01 and Nikkei 225 was up by 349.31 points or 2.06% to 17,323.11.
 
On the other hand, Hang Seng decreased 199.13 points or 0.84% to 23,597.95, Taiwan Weighted slipped 25.32 points or 0.28% to 8,859.07 and Shanghai Composite was down by 15.31 points or 0.62% to 2,458.70.

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