Benchmarks knock off some more gains; Realty counter turns red

Benchmark equity indices pared some gains in comparison to early deals, as investors continued to book profits. Dragged by Health Care and Realty counter, barometer gauges knocked of some gains, however, the trade at D-street continued to remain firm. Supporting the green trend, were stocks of Consumer Durable, Oil & Gas and Fast Moving Consumer Goods counters. Meanwhile, cues from positive Asian peers ahead of the European Union summit provided succor to the sentiment. The US future indices, were exhibiting mixed trend in the screen trade.

On the flip side, slide of Indian rupee for fifth consecutive session, to record low level, weighed on the sentiment. The beleaguered currency enticing weakness, was trading at dangerous 55.09/$, even after arbitrage measures taken by the Reserve Bank of India late on Monday.

30 scrip sensitive index, Sensex, surrendering its 16300 level, was currently holding above the 16250 mark, with gain of over 75 points. The widely followed index, Nifty, meanwhile, too was oscillating near the 4900 psychological level. The broader indices, too slashed some gains in line with frontline indices.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,260.47, up by 77.21 points or 0.48%. The index has touched a high and low of 16,366.72 and 16,255.07   respectively. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index. The broader indices, too pared some gains; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading up by 0.37% and 0.42% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD up by 0.87%, Oil and Gas up by 0.78%, Fast Moving Consumer Goods up by 0.74%, Auto up by 0.73% and Information Technology up by 0.51%. While, Health Care down by 0.13%, Realty down by 0.08% remained the lone loser on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.42%, Tata Motors up by 2.12%, ITC up by 1.38%, Tata Steel up by 1.34% and ONGC up by 1.11%.

On the flip side, Tata Power down by 1.99% Sun Pharma down by 1.95%, DLF down by 0.98%, L&T down by 0.76% and HUL down by 0.06% remained the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley has cut India’s growth forecast for FY’13 to 6.3% and has revised the estimates for FY’14 to 6.9%. The revision has come in as it believes that India is going through a bad mix of a high fiscal deficit and an expansionary policy which is increasing consumption without augmenting private investment. It is also of the view that the RBI may cut the repo rate by an additional 100 bps by March 2013.

The downgrade comes amidst comments from the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, that it may be difficult for India to achieve its targeted growth of 7.5% in this fiscal, although not impossible. In his view the falling rupee and high inflation are expected to affect GDP growth in the country. Further the last quarter has not shown any robustness and it remains to be seen how the first quarter of the current fiscal will fare.

India has been facing stiff inflationary pressures since the last fiscal. The current depreciation in the rupee has further added to its woes. The government expects the GDP to grow by 7.5% in the current fiscal however doubts about the figure have started surfacing.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4932.35, higher by 26.30 points or 0.54%. The index has touched a high and low of 4,956.35 and 4,926.05 respectively.  There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up by 2.47%, SAIL up by 2.31%, Tata Motors up by 2.20%, Cairn up by 2.13% and ITC up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Tata Power down by 2.25%, Sun Pharma down by 2.16%, Ranbaxy down by 1.12%, Sesa Goa down by 1.08% and L&T down by 1.07% remained the top losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite advanced 0.50%, Hang Seng Index climbed 1.03%, Jakarta Composite surged 1.22%, KLSE Composite up by 0.23%, Nikkei 225 soared 0.93%, Straits Times Index amassed 1.19%, KOSPI Composite Index jumped 1.32% and Taiwan Weighted gained 1.13%.