Markets continue to trade in red dragged down by FMCG, banks and metals

Indian markets consolidating after two straight sessions of gains and have cooled off in the early noon session, witnessing some profit booking with major bourses suffering cut of around a quarter percent. The trade has turned cautious in the very first hour and traders were remaining on sidelines ahead of the key macro data of IIP and CPI. Today, the government will be announcing a new series of Consumer Price Index (CPI) with 2012 as base year for computing retail inflation; the change has been effected in order to present a better picture of the price situation in the country. The CPI data for January is likely to be in the range of 5.3 to 5.8 percent, against 5 percent reported in December.  On the other hand the index of industrial production (IIP) data is likely to come lower at around 2 percent, against 3.8 percent on a month-on-month basis. There were some individual stock movements keeping the markets in action, Pipavav Defence & Offshore Engineering surged around 9 percent on reports that Mahindra & Mahindra is planning to buy around 25-30 percent stake in the company for an aggregate amount of Rs 3,000 crore in a three phase. On the same time JSPL has given up all its early gains and was down by over one and half a percent. A Delhi High court bench hearing on the plea of Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL), took out Utkal B1 and B2 blocks and Gare Palma IV/6, from the auction process. Back on street, while reality, power and auto were supporting the markets, the major drag was coming from FMCG, banks and metal stocks.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28449.28, down by 84.69 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 28406.25 and 28685.88. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming the benchmarks and trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.82%, while Small cap index gained 0.99%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.06%, Power up by 0.94%, Auto up by 0.80%, IT up by 0.73%, TECK up by 0.50% while, FMCG down by 0.96%, Bankex down by 0.80%, Oil & Gas down by 0.59%, Metal down by 0.45%, PSU down by 0.27% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.25%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.24%, Cipla up by 1.98%, Hindalco up by 1.70% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.56%. On the flip side, SBI down by 1.82%, ITC down by 1.76%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.35%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.15% and Sesa Sterlite down by 1.15% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government is going to release a new series of Consumer Price Index (CPI) with 2012 as base year for computing retail inflation rate for the month of for January 2015; the change has been effected in order to present a better picture of the price situation in the country.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO), which has recently revised the base year and methodology for computing national account has revised the Base Year from 2010=100 to 2012=100 for the CPI calculation, with this (base) revision, the gap between Price Reference Year (Base Year) and the Weight Reference Year has been minimised.

In the new series not only the base year has been revised but a number of methodological improvements have been introduced, accordingly the weight of food and beverages would be 45.86 in the new 2012 series compared to 47.58 in 2010 series for national index, while the weight of fuel and light segment would be 6.84 in the new series as against 9.49 in the 2010 series and the weight of clothing and footwear segment would be increased to 6.53 from 4.73 while that of housing will be 10.07 from 9.77.

Further, the number of priced items has been changed from 437 to 448 in rural and from 450 to 460 in urban at all India level. The 11 new priced items have been added, without dropping any item, in rural sector at all India level. In case of urban, 7 priced items have been dropped and 17 new priced items have been added.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8613.40, down by 14.00 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 8599.25 and 8681.40. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 3.85%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.49%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.30%, Cipla up by 2.01%, Ambuja Cement up by 1.83%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel & Power down by 1.79%, SBI down by 1.77%, Asian Paints down by 1.65%, ITC down by 1.62% and Cairn India down by 1.51% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mixed, Shanghai Composite gained 19.51 points or 0.62% to 3,177.22, Taiwan Weighted was up by 34.09 points or 0.36% to 9,496.31, Hang Seng was higher by 106.38 points or 0.44% to 24,421.40, Nikkei 225 surged by 327.04 points or 1.85% to 17,979.72,

On the other hand, Straits Times declined by 29.51 points or 0.86% to 3,415.06, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 13.92 points or 0.77% to 1,785.03, Jakarta Composite was lower by 10.89 points or 0.2% to 5,325.63 and KOSPI Index traded down by 4.07 points or 0.21% to 1,941.63.