Benchmarks trade listless in early trade; June WPI eyed

Domestic bourses, after a positive start were exhibiting listless trade on Monday’s morning due to lack of global and local cues. Moreover, investors stayed on the sideline ahead of June inflation data, to be released later today. Though, global cues largely remained supportive with most of the Asian counters trading in the positive terrain on optimism of stimulus measure from China after Premier Wen Jiabao said that the government will increase measures to support growth in the world’s second-largest economy. Back home, investors are waiting for government’s action on diesel price after presidential election this week. On the sectoral front healthcare, banking and auto remained the major gainers while, metal, software and technology witnessed the major selling pressure, dragging down the benchmarks. Meanwhile, the sentiments were also supported by sugar stocks like Shree Renuka Sugar, Bajaj Hindusthan, Balrampur Chini, Triveni Engineering and Rana Sugar, which edged higher in the trade on the report that Food Ministry has proposed imposing 10 percent import duty on sugar as the country has surplus domestic production. The broader indices were trading in the green and the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 844 shares on the gaining side against 583 shares on the losing side while 64 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,241.98; about 28 points higher compared to its previous closing of 17,213.70, and has touched high and a low of 17,282.30 and 17,202.62 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 17,202.62 down by 11.08 points or 0.06%. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 56.61% stocks advancing against 39.10% declines. The broader indices, however, were trading in the green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.12% and 0.14% respectively.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, HC up by 0.49%, Bankex up by 0.19%, Auto up by 0.15% and CG was up by 0.07%. While, Metal down by 1.11%, IT down by 0.86%, TECk down by 0.52%, Realty down by 0.29% and Power down by 0.29% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.48%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.41%, Cipla up by 0.56%, HDFC up by 0.53% and SBI was up by 0.45%.

On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.44%, Jindal Steel down by 2.35%, Infosys down by 1.02%, Sterlite Industries down by 0.92% and GAIL down by 0.75% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has decided to postpone the proposal of disinvestment of Steel Authority of India (SAIL), as the Steel Minister, Beni Prasad Verma and his secretary are on an official tour. The proposal put across by the Department of Disinvestment suggested the selling of 10.82 percent shares of the company.

The government aims to raise Rs 30,000 crore this fiscal by selling stakes in 15 companies. The disinvestment of SAIL of about 10% stake is estimated to fetch about Rs 4,000 crore at current market price, while the total government share holding in the company is about 85.82 per cent.

Earlier in April 2010, the CCEA had approved 10 per cent disinvestment of government's share in SAIL along with issue of 10 per cent fresh equity by the company in two equal tranches. However, due to market volatility, the government deferred the offer.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,232.35; about 5 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,227.25, and has touched a high and a low of 5,246.85 and 5,220.60 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,223.20, lower by 4.05 points or 0.08%. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 1.48%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.36%, Axis Bank up by 0.84%, Cipla up by 0.71% and PNB up by 0.65%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 2.51%, Tata Steel down by 2.41%, RInfra down by 1.71%, Infosys down by 1.24% and Sesa Goa down by 1.18%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green, Hang Seng was up 36.99 points or 0.19% to 19,129.62, Jakarta Composite was up 35.44 points or 0.88% to 4,055.11, KLSE Composite was up 7.47 points or 0.46% to 1,633.85, Straits Times was up 1.56 points or 0.05% to 2,997.12, KOSPI Composite was up 1.59 points or 0.09% to 1,814.48 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 6.12 points or 0.09% to 7,110.39. 

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 26.20 points or 1.20% to 2,159.69. 

The Japanese market remained closed on Monday for a public holiday.