Benchmarks pare initial gains to trade flat

Indian equity benchmarks have pared early gains and are trading flat in early deals as a continuing slide in crude oil prices dampened risk appetite. Though, markets managed to keep their head above water on reports that foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 245 crore on January 12, 2015, as per provisional stock exchange data. Some support also came in after India’s industrial growth for the month of November came in at 3.8% versus -4.2% for October, supported by favorable base effect and a pick-up in manufacturing, higher working days on a month-on-month basis, while India’s CPI edged higher to 5% in December as compared 4.38% in November. However, the number is way lower than street's expected figure of ‘5.20%’.

On the global front, the US markets ended lower in last session amid another sharp drop by the price of crude oil, which has fallen to its lowest levels in almost six years. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the green at this point of time ahead of Chinese trade data.

Back home, on the sectoral front, healthcare, fast moving consumer goods and metal witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while realty, software and oil and gas remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices however were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1234 shares on the gaining side against 653 shares on the losing side while 67 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27587.94, up by 2.67 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 27554.77 and 27670.19. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.53%, while Small cap index up by 0.56%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.75%, FMCG up by 0.71%, Metal up by 0.51%, Consumer Durables up by 0.49% and Bankex up by 0.39% while, Realty down by 0.52%, IT down by 0.44%, Oil & Gas down by 0.34%, TECK down by 0.29% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 1.90%, Hindalco up by 1.32%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.23%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.09% and SBI up by 0.86%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.83%, Infosys down by 1.23%, Tata Motors down by 0.83%, Reliance Industries down by 0.34% and NTPC down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a positive development for the economy, the index for industrial output (IIP) for the month of November hit a five month high of 3.8%  at 169.8, which is  higher than street’s expectation of figure of over 2%, supported by favorable base effect and a pick-up in manufacturing, higher working days on a month-on-month basis. The cumulative growth for the period April-November 2014-15 over the corresponding period of the previous year stands at 2.2%.

The Indices of Industrial Production for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for the month of November 2014 stood at 127.9, 177.0 and 174.3 respectively, with the corresponding growth rates of 3.4%, 3.0% and 10.00% as compared to November 2013. The cumulative growth in the three sectors during April-November 2014-15 over the corresponding period of 2013-14 has been 2.5%, 1.1% and 10.7% respectively.

In terms of industries, sixteen (16) out of the twenty two (22) industry groups (as per 2-digit NIC-2004) in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of November 2014 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year. On Use-based classification, capital goods production, a barometer for investments in the economy grew by 6.5% for the month under review as against -2.3% for the previous month. The output of basic goods sector grew by 7% as against 5.8% in October, while consumer non-durables output stood at 6% in November as compared to 4.3% in the previous month. The output of consumer durables sector continued its contraction, stood at -14.5% in month under review as compared to contraction of -35.2% in October, indicating that consumers are reeling under high inflation, which is impacting their spending.

The latest data comes as a welcome relief for Narendra Modi government, which has pushed through a raft of economic reforms, mostly by executive orders to accelerate the economic growth of the country.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8340.10, up by 17.10 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 8321.85 and 8356.30. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 3.74%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 2.41%, Cipla up by 2.07%, Indusind Bank up by 1.87% and BPCL up by 1.54%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.70%, Infosys down by 1.23%, DLF down by 0.99%, Tata Motors down by 0.81% and Ambuja Cement down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 7.53 points or 0.43% to 1,742.61, Shanghai Composite rose 8.51 points or 0.26% to 3,237.83, Jakarta Composite gained 23.95 points or 0.46% to 5,211.88, Hang Seng surged 128.48 points or 0.53% to 24,154.94 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 63.25 points or 0.69% to 9,241.55.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 322.02 points or 1.87% to 16,875.71, Straits Times slipped 7.88 points or 0.24% to 3,337.01 and KOSPI Index was down by 3.33 points or 0.17% to 1,917.62.