Markets add weakness; trades at the lowest point of day

Indian equities extended its weakness in the late afternoon session, trading at the lowest point of the day. The weak trade continued as investors started booking profit largely across the board after the recent sharp rally in last two days. Besides, the pessimism spilled across the street as investors’ hope of monetary easing by RBI in its forthcoming mid-quarter policy review on June 18 were doused to some extent by comments of one of Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor that interest rates in India were not too high to adversely impact economic growth. Traders were seen selling in IT, Bankex and Auto sector. Construction companies stock extended yesterday’s rally which were encouraged by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement, announcing a big push to the infrastructure sector to revive sagging economic growth. Information Technology stocks remained under pressure as rupee hit 2-week high against dollar as of yesterday. In the scrip specific development, India Cements sank on reports that Central Bureau of Investigation has summoned the company's managing director in connection with YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy's disproportionate assets case. Jain Irrigation Systems was seen trading firm attracting lot of volumes after Macquarie Bank acquired 1.14% stake in the company through a bulk deal yesterday.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in red while the European markets were too trading in red on pessimistic note. On the home turf, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,000 and 16,400 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1069:1463 while 105 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,485.02 down by 164.03 points or 0.99% after trading as high as 16,625.71 and as low as 16,485.02. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a weak note; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.65% while Small cap index dropped 0.18%.

On the BSE sectoral space, there were no gainers, while IT down 1.40%, Bankex down 1.28%, Auto down 1.21%, Oil & Gas down 1.11% and TECk down 1.10% were the major laggards in the space.

Sterlite Industries up 2.16%, HUL up 1.15%, GAIL India up 0.82% and L&T up 0.07% were the only gainers on the Sensex, while ONGC down 2.76%, Maruti Suzuki down 2.55%, Infosys down 2.16%, Jindal Steel down 1.98% and ICICI Bank down 1.78% were the major losers in the index.

Meanwhile, underlining the need for expeditious rollout of Aadhaar initiative to curb expenditure and streamline delivery mechanism Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee has asked CMs of 16 states to use the Aadhaar platform for various central government schemes, including distribution of subsidised ration and cooking gas cylinders.

At a first stage, 50 districts have been identified in 16 states for the initiation of pilot projects for rollout of government schemes based on the extent of Aadhaar enrolments.FM expressed the need to further expand the list of districts already running these pilots.

The pilots are proposed to be run for Public Distribution System, LPG distribution, Kerosene disbursal, pension schemes, Janani Suraksha Yojana, government scholarships, financial Inclusion, Kisan Credit Cards and MGNREGS wage disbursal. Chief Ministers of the respective state/Union Territory can include other schemes for initiation of pilots on the Aadhaar platform.

Aadhaar is a 12 digit individual identification number issued by the UIDAI on behalf of the Government of India to ensure, among other things, that the funds allocated by the Centre for various schemes directly reach the beneficiaries. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has issued 13.80 crore Aadhaar cards till March 7.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,002.35, lower by 47.30 points or 0.94% after trading as high as 5,044.25 and as low as 4,997.20. There were 7 stocks advancing against 42 declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Sterlite Industries up 2.26%, Reliance Infrastructure up 2.09%, GAIL India up 1.43%, HUL up 1.04% and Sesa Goa up 0.92%.

Axis Bank down 2.98%, ONGC down 2.96%, Martui Suzuki down 2.71%, Cairn down 2.66% and Infosys down 2.14% were the major losers on the index.

In the Asian space, Shanghai Composite declined 0.51%, Hang Seng sank 0.94%, Jakarta Composite dropped 0.65%, KLSE Composite fell 0.33%, Nikkei 225 got pounded 2.09%, Straits Times Index shed 0.62%, KOSPI Composite Index slipped 0.67% and Taiwan Weighted plunged 1.14%.

The European markets were trading in red with, France’s CAC 40 dropped 1.41%, Germany’s DAX declined 1.34% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 fell 1.13%.