Barometer gauges flatten out gains; Nifty slips into red

Barometer gauges have flattened out early gains, which were majorily seen on the back of rally in Oil & Gas and Public Sector Undertaking stocks, on account of steep petrol prices hike, delivered by Congress led UPA government. The development which comes in the backdrop of widening current account deficit and rupee depreciation, emerged positive for Oil Marketing Companies and dampener for auto stocks, which reeling under pressure, dragged the index lower, along Realty stocks. 30 scrip sensitive index, after starting above 16,000 level, wilted under pressure, to trade near to its neutral line, which is sub the crucial bastion. However, 50 share index, Nifty, succumbing to selling pressure, slid into the red terrain, to continue trading sub 4850 psychological level. The broader indices, meanwhile, trading listless, were exhibiting mixed trend.

On the global front, lack of a breakthrough in Europe's attempts to shake off its debt crisis , which escalated risks of Greece exiting currency bloc, minced the sentiment of Asian pacific shares, besides drawing the foreign investors away, who preferred parking their funds into safe bets such bonds. The US future indices too were showing a downtick in the screen trade.

Closer home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 15,958.39, up by 10.29 points or 0.06%. The index has touched a high and low of 16,064.24 and 15,939.40 respectively. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The broader indices were exhibiting mixed trend; the BSE Mid cap index declined by 0.12% and Small cap index gained 0.16%.The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil and Gas up by 1.27%, Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) up by 0.17% and Bankex up by 0.06%. While, Realty down by 1.19%, Auto down by 0.98%, Consumer Durable down by 0.70%, Metal and Power down by 0.62% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 3.42%, HDFC up by 2.41%, GAIL India up by 1.87%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.22% and HDFC Bank up by 0.67%.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.37%, Bajaj Auto was down by 1.71%, Tata Power down by 1.52%, Sun Pharma down by 0.51% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.29% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India has signed a pact for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Gas Pipeline Project. The two companies - GAIL from India and TurkmenGaz, Turkmenistan’s national oil company have signed the gas sale and purchase agreement (GSPA) for the same.

The 1,680 km pipeline will start from Turkmenistan and pass from Afghanistan and Pakistan before ending in India. It will have the capacity to carry 90 mmscmd of gas, with 38 mmscmd each for India and Pakistan and the remaining 14 mmscmd for Afghanistan. It is expected that the project will be complete by 2018 and will supply gas for a period of 30 years. The project is in lieu of the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline project which was opposed by the US due to the involvement of Iran. The TAPI project on the other hand has the support of America.

The contentious issue of payment of transit fee has also been sorted out and it has been decided that member countries will pay a transit fee of 50 cents. The final transportation charges will be decided once the project is completed. The issue of transit fee is contentious because the country which is at the end tends to pay the highest amount. However in this case it has been decided that India and Pakistan will pay the same amount.

The delivered price of gas on the Indian border is expected to be $10-12 per mmBtu. This is higher than the price of $4.20 per mmBtu price of domestic gas and lower than $16 per mmBtu rate of gas which is imported in ships in its liquid form (LNG). The gas for the pipeline is being sourced from South Yoiotan Osman field which is believed to hold proven recoverable gas reserves of 16 trillion cubic meters.

 The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,834.20, down by 1.45 points or 0.03%. The index has touched a high and low of 4,867.55 and 4,830.80 respectively.  There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 declines on theindex.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ONGC up by 3.04%, HDFC up by 2.28%, BPCL up by 1.94%, GAIL up by 1.62% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.03%.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.62%, JP Associate down by 2.49%, Tata Power down by 1.86%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.70% and Sun Pharma down by 1.52% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite declined 0.31%, Hang Seng Index dipped 0.58%, Nikkei 225 dropped 0.62%, Taiwan Weighted inched lower by 0.76%, Jakarta Composite eased 0.23% and KOSPI Composite Index sank 0.30%. On the flipside, Straits Times and KLSE Composite were trading higher by 0.01% and 0.35% respectively.