Benchmarks drift lower amid weak Asian counters

After making flat opening, key benchmarks have turned a bit soft on the back of profit booking amid weak Asian markets. Asian stocks declined triggered after data showed weaker-than-expected ‘flash' China manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI). However, the US markets showed mixed trend overnight on getting a disappointing report on the housing market and bearish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Europe. Back home, the gold financing companies were reeling under pressure as Reserve Bank of India has come out with curbs on the business, restricting loans to 60% of the jewellery value and bar loans against coins and gold biscuits. Stocks like Muthoot Finance and Manappuram Finance crashed 11 percent and 14 percent respectively. On the sectoral front, fast moving consumer goods, auto and healthcare remained the top gainers while, metal, software and technology remained the major loser on the BSE sectoral indices. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks while the market breadth on the BSE was marginally positive; there were 820 shares on the gaining side against 661 shares on the losing side while 60 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,586.06; about 15 points lower compared to its previous closing of 17,601.71, and has touched a high and a low of 17,620.56 and 17,545.27 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 17,555.53, down by 46.18 points or 0.26%. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 53.21% stocks advancing against 42.89% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.03% and 0.24% respectively.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, FMCG up by 0.35%, Auto up by 0.24%, HC up by 0.18% and PSU up by 0.18%. While, Metal down by 0.92%, IT down by 0.71%, TECk down by 0.60%, Realty down by 0.56% and CG down by 0.40% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 1.23%, Coal India up by 0.92%, Tata Motors up by 0.90%, Sun Pharma up by 0.81% and ITC up by 0.67%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel was down by 4.77%, Tata Steel was down by 1.18%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 0.94%, L&T was down by 0.85% and Infosys was down by 0.82% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government plans to raise Rs 1500 crore from the auction of Radio FM Phase-III. The auction will be conducted in phases and the first phase is expected to finish by March 2012, as per Information and Broadcasting Secretary, Uday Kumar Verma.

The government expects to garner Rs 500 crore through the auctioning in the first phase of Phase III.  The earlier auctions of Phase I and Phase II had resulted in a total revenue collection of about Rs 1,733 crore through one time entry fee, migration fee and annual fee, among others, up to May 31, 2011.

The FM Phase-III policy plans to extend FM radio services to about 227 new cities, in addition to the present 86 cities with a total of 839 new FM radio channels. It will result in the coverage of all cities with a population of one lakh and above through private FM channels.

The government said, in its budget proposals for 2012-13, that it had estimated to raise non-tax revenue of Rs 1,600 crore from auction of FM phase III license, but this auction have not materialsed so far in this financial year, ending March 31, 2012. It may be noted that the FM radio expansion plan has already run into many delays. The Union Cabinet had approved the proposal for granting new FM radio licenses to private players in July 2011, and said the process was slated to be completed by end of this fiscal however, it got postponed to April 2012. Now there are reports suggesting that it may be further delayed to August end.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,361.10; about 3 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,364.95, and has touched a high and a low of 5,368.10 and 5,344.05 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,344.95, up by 20.00 points or 0.37%. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 1.35%, Sun Pharma up by 0.88%, Tata Motors up by 0.85%, Coal India up by 0.83% and Hindalco up by 0.73%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 4.66%, IDFC down by 2.01%, Tata Steel down by 1.41%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.17% and TCS down by 1.17%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Hang Seng was down 4.73 points or 0.02% to 20,851.90, Jakarta Composite was down 1.13 points or 0.03% to 4,035.11, Nikkei 225 was down 10.37 points or 0.10% to 10,076.12, Straits Times was down 12.35 points or 0.41% to 2,993.28 and Seoul Composite was down 6.23 points or 0.31% to 2,021.00.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite was up 2.70 points or 0.17% to 1,585.23 and Taiwan Weighted was up 50.49 points or 0.63% to 8,032.43.