Markets trade rangebound in red ahead of Rail Budget presentation

Trade continues to remain range bound just ahead of the presentation of the railways budget. Traders are eyeing the rail budget as it will give some cues about the ensuing main budget. Though, the Rail Minister giving a hint to the Budget said that it is a long journey, everything can't be accomplished in the first year. Traders will be mainly eyeing the Railway finances and its operating ratio along with any changes in freight rates. Back on street, the listless trade is not looking taking the markets in any direction and the broader markets too were trading lower with cut of around a quarter percent. None of the sectoral indices was showing any sign of recovery and decliners were led by auto, healthcare and technology stocks. Steel stocks too have given up their early gains and were trading marginally in red. Global rating agency Moody's Investor Services has said that Steel demand in India will grow in single digit in 2015 buoyed by government's infrastructure spending.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28957.62, down by 50.37 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 28885.33 and 29069.13. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices too were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.19%, while Small cap index lost 0.17%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.05%, Power up by 0.03%, while Auto down by 0.72%, TECK down by 0.45%, FMCG down by 0.43%, IT down by 0.43%, Consumer Durables down by 0.38% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 2.12%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.47%, NTPC up by 0.89%, GAIL India up by 0.73% and ICICI Bank up by 0.48%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 2.05%, BHEL down by 2.04%, Hindalco down by 1.82%, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 1.61% and Coal India down by 1.14% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, global rating agency Moody's Investor Services, while maintaining a stable outlook for the Asian steel industry for now, given its expectation that steelmaker profitability will remain better in the first half of 2015, compared to the weak margins seen in the first half of 2014, has said that Steel demand in India will grow in single digit in 2015 buoyed by government's infrastructure spending.

Regionally, Moody's expects flat demand in Korea and Japan, while India will post single-digit demand growth as the new government invigorates infrastructure spending. Indian steel companies- because of import duty and/or captive iron ore supplies-will enjoy the highest profitability among the cohort. Moody's expects Japanese steel companies to benefit from the weak yen, which boosts their competitive cost structures.

Moody's has however cautioned that it could change its outlook on the Asian steel sector to negative if steel demand continues to decline over the next few months. It has said that still, sluggish domestic demand won't greatly affect supply levels, as Chinese steel companies will keep 2015 production close to 2014 levels by boosting higher-price exports, although this will pressure regional steel prices. Steel demand growth in China will be negatively affected by the slowing domestic economy and weakness in the property market, which is one of the primary end-markets for steel. The sluggish steel demand will impact steelmakers in Asia because China accounts for approximately 70% of the region's steel demand.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8747.10, down by 20.15 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 8731.70 and 8786.05. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC up by 2.03%, Lupin up by 1.71%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.38%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 1.37% and NTPC up by 0.96%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 2.22%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.06%, Hindalco down by 2.02%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.61% and Sun Pharma Inds. down by 1.42% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.54 points or 0.03% to 1,816.40, KOSPI Index gained 2.61 points or 0.13% to 1,993.08, Shanghai Composite was up by 48.34 points or 1.5% to 3,277.18, Hang Seng was higher by 50.62 points or 0.2% to 24,828.90, Nikkei 225 surged by 201.87 points or 1.09% to 18,787.07. On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted decreased 77.44 points or 0.8% to 9,622.10, Straits Times was down by 17.17 points or 0.5% to 3,423.66 and Jakarta Composite was lower by 12.44 points or 0.23% to 5,432.67.