Benchmarks continue to trade in red in late morning session

Indian bourses continued to trade in red in the late morning session as funds and retail investors were engaged in reducing positions ahead of the Rail Budget to be announced later in the day. Union minister Suresh Prabhu will be presenting his maiden railway budget; he has said that best efforts are being made to fulfill people's aspiration in the NDA government's first full-fledged Rail Budget. Markets are likely to remain volatile in today’s session as traders roll over positions in the futures & options (F&O) segment from February 2015 series to March 2015 series. The near month February 2015 derivatives contracts expire today. Sentiment on the street weakened as global rating agency Moody's, in its report clarified that fiscal policies and structural reforms will determine India's sovereign credit profile and not recent revisions to the economic growth data. However, investors find some support with report that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 516.06 crore on February 25, 2015. On global front, Asian stocks were mostly higher on upbeat corporate earnings and rising Chinese factory output after the chairwoman of the U.S. Federal Reserve said it will be patient about increasing interest rates. Back home, Indian rupee rose four paise to 61.93 against the dollar in early trade on fresh selling of the US currency by exporters amid increased foreign capital inflows.

Back on street, stocks from Oil & Gas, Metal and Power counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from Auto, FMCG and Teck counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, NTPC gained on receiving investment approval for Khargone Super Thermal Power Project (2 x 660 MW) in the state of Madhya Pradesh at an appraised current estimated cost of Rs 9,870.51 crore subject to Environment Clearance of Ministry of Environment and Forests. Furthermore, Bharti Airtel rose on plan to sell up to 55 million equity shares of its subsidiary company Bharti Infratel on February 26, 2015 through stock exchanges.

The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2178 stocks traded, 889 stocks advanced, while 1213 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28948.40, down by 59.59 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 28885.33 and 29069.13. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.23%, while Small cap index down by 0.26%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.11%, Metal up by 0.10% and Power up by 0.04%, while Auto down by 0.63%, FMCG down by 0.47%, TECK down by 0.44%, IT down by 0.43% and Realty down by 0.35% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sesa Sterlite up by 1.76%, HDFC up by 0.95%, BHEL up by 0.82%, TCS up by 0.68% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.62%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 2.01%, Sun Pharma down by 1.76%, Hindalco down by 1.73%, Infosys down by 1.25% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.96% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Oil regulator, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has recommended a range of Rs 150-200 per thousand cubic meters of gas ($ 0.115 per million British thermal unit) as a marketing margin for domestic gas being supplied to fertilizer and LPG plants.

The PNGRB’s recommendations to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas are under examination and after a decision is taken in the matter, the same will be intimated to the Department of Fertilizers, but they are about 11.5 cents, less than what state-run GAIL and Reliance Industries currently charge from gas users. Presently, marketing margins charged by producers and sellers of gas range from 11 cents to 20 cents per mmBtu. RIL charges 13.5 cents per mmBtu as marketing margin over and above the government-set price of $4.205 for its eastern offshore KG-D6 gas, while State-owned gas utility GAIL India charges Rs 200 per thousand cubic metres as marketing margin.

The regulator who submitted its recommendations to the Ministry on January 20, 2015, had last year on January 21 called for bids from consultants 'to assist it in the  task of determination of marketing margin for supply of domestic gas to urea and  LPG producers for recommending this to the government.” The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had decided that government needs to regulate the marketing margin  for supply of domestic gas to urea and LPG producers, as the same has  implications on government subsidy outgo as both urea and LPG are subsidised.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8747.00, down by 20.25 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 8731.70 and 8786.05. There were 17 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sesa Sterlite up by 1.78%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 1.75%, Lupin up by 1.42%, HDFC up by 0.87% and TCS up by 0.68%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.84%, Sun Pharma down by 1.74%, Hindalco down by 1.40%, Bank Of Baroda down by 1.38% and Infosys down by 1.33% were the top losers.

Most of Asian markets were showing positive trend, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 0.54%, Shanghai Composite gained 1.39%, Nikkei 225 surged by 0.89%, KOSPI Index up by 0.1% and Hang Seng increased 0.79%. On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted declined by 0.56%, Straits Times was down by 0.45% and Jakarta Composite lost 0.23%.