Markets continue to sulk into negative territory; Nifty languishes below 8,300 mark

Indian equity markets, after slipping into negative territory, continued to trade lackluster in absence of any buying activity as market-participants incrementally booked profit in the holiday truncated Christmas week. Both, Sensex and Nifty were trading lower below psychologically crucial 27,600 and 8,300 levels respectively, with massive losses of around half a percent. Meanwhile, broader indices also continued to trade dismal, with cuts in line with larger counterparts.

On the global front, Asian markets were heading lower despite big gains on Wall Street, which closed at record highs overnight. However, trading was thin in Asia with the region's biggest market - Japan - closed for a public holiday.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE succumbed to selling pressure, nevertheless stocks from Metal, Consumer Durables and Realty counters were the prominent losers of the session, while stocks from FMCG counter were just about trading flat. A lot of volatility could be witnessed on penultimate F&O expiry session of trade, while political uncertainty on account of ongoing counting assembly elections results in Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir also weighed on the sentiment. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1642:925; while 105 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27572.73, down by 129.06 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 27571.37 and 27851.10. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.49%, while Small cap index down by 0.54%.

The losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 1.90%, Realty down by 1.32%, Consumer Durables down by 1.21%, Oil & Gas down by 0.92% and Power down by 0.81%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 1.55%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.39%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.52%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.36% and GAIL India up by 0.24%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.39%, Sesa Sterlite down by 2.30%, Hindalco down by 2.28%, Tata Power down by 2.26% and Coal India down by 1.96% were the top losers.

Meanwhile,  an advisory group, headed by railway minister Suresh Prabhu in its final report for ‘Integrated Development of Power, Coal, and Renewable Energy’ has made a strong case for opening the coal sector to supplement production by Coal India. The report lists suggestions for enhancing coal production in the short, medium and long terms, besides making suggestions for improvements required in state run Coal India and its subsidiaries including Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI).

Emphasizing upon the need for round the clock power supply, the group has pressed for reform of electricity distribution, including privatisation and public-private partnerships, separation of carriage and content in distribution licences, and an enhanced role for and improvements in the working of the Central Electricity Authority.

Further, the report has also suggested salient aspects of the coal block auction process, coal linkage rationalization, swapping of coal linkages, need for urgent action on coal linkages to power plants already commissioned and likely to be commissioned by March 2015.

Moreover, the group has recommended phasing out old and inefficient thermal power plants that burn excessive fuel and encouraged the argument of setting up new coal based thermal plants to set up a renewable energy generation station.

Lastly, the group also has called for stringent penalties to improve quality of service and grid discipline, establishing regional regulators in consultation with states and a mechanism to review of the performance of regulatory commissions through a forum of regulators.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8294.85, down by 29.15 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 8294.05 and 8364.75. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 1.73%, Grasim Industries up by 1.60%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.22%, Bank Of Baroda up by 0.76% and Hero MotoCorp up by 0.62%. On the flip side, Tata Power down by 2.20%, DLF down by 2.13%, Sesa Sterlite down by 2.11%, HCL Tech. down by 2.11% and Hindalco down by 1.96% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly higher; with Taiwan Weighted trading higher by 2.71 points or 0.03% to 9,097.71; Straits Times rising by 2.85 points or 0.09% to 3,333.81; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gaining by 7.05 points or 0.4% to 1,751.10; Nikkei 225 inching up by 13.74 points or 0.08% to 17,635.14; Jakarta Composite edging higher by 19.62 points or 0.38% to 5,145.39. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was trading lower by 76.83 points or 2.46% to 3,050.62; Hang Seng lost 35.04 points or 0.15% to 23,373.53 and KOSPI Index slid 4.1 points or 0.21% to 1,939.02.