Benchmarks trade slightly in the red in early deals on Wednesday

Indian equity benchmarks have made  a ppositive start on firm global cues but profit booking at higher levels dragged markets below their crucial 29,000 (Sensex) and 8,750 (Nifty) levels. However, losses remained capped as some support came in with the statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who pitching India growth story before global investors has promised them a fair, predictable and consistent tax system and growth-focussed economic policies. The Reserve Bank on its part has decided to liberalise FDI norms by allowing greater flexibility in the pricing of instruments with a view to attract more investments from overseas.

On the global front, the US markets rallied in last session supported by upbeat auto sales data and some merger acquisition news. Spike in price of crude oil for the third consecutive session too supported the upmove. The Asian markets were trading firmly at this point of time, though the China’s services industry expanded at the weakest pace in six months, driven by a moderation in the rate of growth in new work in January.

Back home, on the sectoral front, consumer durables, realty and metal witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while banking, capital goods and auto remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were trading mixed, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1072 shares on the gaining side against 876 shares on the losing side while 73 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28977.34, down by 22.80 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 28964.46 and 29133.62. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.19%, while Small cap index up by 0.22%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.05%, Realty up by 1.04%, Metal up by 0.97%, Healthcare up by 0.83% and Oil & Gas up by 0.52% while, Bankex down by 1.17%, Capital Goods down by 0.87%, Auto down by 0.73%, Power down by 0.60%, FMCG down by 0.03% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.76%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 2.03%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.50%, Tata Steel up by 1.46% and GAIL India up by 1.30%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 3.91%, BHEL down by 2.74%, SBI down by 2.02%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.43% and ICICI Bank down by 1.31% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, a government memorandum has notified that a panel to determine technical eligibility of bidders for coal mines in the upcoming auction will soon be constituted. The six-member panel will be headed by State Vigilance Commissioner, West Bengal, K S Ramasubban. It will have members from Central Electricity Authority, Power Ministry and National Institute of Secondary Steel Technology, Steel Ministry, among others. Five members include Punjab National Bank chairman and managing director SS Kohli. The committee also comprises Major Singh, member planning in the Central Electricity  Authority, and RK Bagchi, director in the steel ministry. Other members are Mohan Chuttani,  economic advisor in the department of industrial policy and promotion and RK  Chopra, director in Coal India's technical arm Center Mine Planning and Design Institute.

As many as 200 companies have registered themselves for the coal block bidding process and the panel will help joint secretary in the coal ministry Vivek Bhardwaj, who is the nominated authority for coal block auction, in evaluating technical qualification of bidders for the auction.

The government has decided to auction 46 coal blocks to private companies in auctions scheduled between February 14-22. Under the schedule II (producing mines) category, 23 blocks will be put on offer, the bids will be evaluated and the selected qualified bidders will participate in the e-auction for the 23 operational mines beginning February 14, while another set of 23 mines will be auctioned between February 25 and March 5 under the Schedule III (ready to produce mines) category. The Coal Ministry has already started the process for allocation of 36 mines to PSUs, of which 35 will go to power PSUs, while the remaining one has been earmarked for a steel PSU.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8748.25, down by 8.30 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 8742.90 and 8792.85. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cairn India up by 3.22%, ONGC up by 2.74%, Sun Pharma up by 1.99%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 1.71% and Sesa Sterlite up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 3.98%, BHEL down by 2.83%, SBI down by 2.15%, PNB down by 1.70% and IDFC down by 1.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite rose 8.01 points or 0.25% to 3,212.92, KOSPI Index strengthened 14.58 points or 0.75% to 1,966.54, Straits Times increased 15.54 points or 0.46% to 3,423.56, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI surged 24.07 points or 1.35% to 1,805.33, Jakarta Composite gained 40.55 points or 0.77% to 5,332.27, Taiwan Weighted jumped 73.64 points or 0.78% to 9,522.37, Hang Seng increased 208.26 soared or 0.85% to 24,763.04 and Nikkei 225 was up by 352.33 points or 2.03% to 17,688.18.