Benchmark continue weak trade; Metals, CD & Realty down

Indian equities continued to trade weak in the late morning session. On the global front, the Asian markets were majorly trading in red with most of the indices trading lower by about half-to-one percent. Japanese market was down by over a percent as the yen rose against all its major peers on concern Greece won’t meet its debt-reduction targets. The US markets suffered sharp cuts on Tuesday, Dow extended its triple digit decline for the third straight session amid concerns about the ongoing debt crisis in Europe and a round of disappointing profit outlooks, though there was some recovery in last minutes on a report that Fed was nearing to announce a stimulus. Back home, selling was witnessed in Metal, CD and Realty sector. Meanwhile, traders will also be eyeing the movement of rupee which has again gone on a southward journey, breaching the 56-mark in last session. The Essar Oil, MTNL and Oil India declined on NSE’s decision to exclude them with other 48 stocks, from its derivative segment with effect from Friday following Sebi’s new guidelines. Telecom stocks plunged as decision on spectrum fee by the EGoM headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram has been deferred. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5050 and 16,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 941:1146 while 85 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16797.65 down by 120.43 points or 0.71% after trading as high as 16899.01 and as low as 16797.59. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a negative note; the BSE Mid cap index down 0.60% while Small cap index was down 0.46%.

On the BSE sectoral space, there was no gainers on the index while Metal down by 1.76%, CD down by 1.40%, Realty down by 1.02%, Auto down by 0.96%, and PSU down by 0.88% were the losers on the index.

Gail India up by 0.61%, HDFC Bank up by 0.60%, BHEL up by 0.44% and Sun Pharma up by 0.16% were the gainers on the Sensex, while Jindal Steel down by 3.20%, Wipro down by 2.31%, Hindalco Inds down by 2.05%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.88% and Coal India down by 1.80% were the major losers in the index.

Meanwhile, in an unexpected decision, state-run oil marketing companies have recalibrated the surcharge calculations in different states to align with changes made in local levies by state governments. After the recalibration, petrol and diesel would become marginally cheaper in 11 states, while the price of cooking gas would come down in 12 states from Wednesday. On the same time petrol and diesel would become costlier in seven states, while cooking gas would become costlier in six states.

The decision of recalibrating the state surcharge has mainly been done under a scheme to compensate fuel retailers for irrecoverable taxes like entry tax on crude in the state and surcharge on sales tax and CST on inter-company sale of products levied by local authorities. The retailers would now review the surcharge regime every quarter.

It will be relief to the states where the prices has declined after the OMCs raised petrol prices by 70 paise per litre, excluding taxes from Tuesday, though the relief will be marginal as the price change will be in a range of 32 paise to Re 1 a litre for petrol and diesel, while for cooking gas, the changes would vary between Rs 4.50 to around Rs 10 per cylinder.

Average price of Indian basket of crude is $101.28 per barrel while international petrol price is $111.59 a barrel. Oil firms are losing Rs10.01 a litre on diesel, Rs 27.20 per litre on kerosene and Rs 319 per domestic LPG cylinder. The three state-owned oil marketing firms are projected to lose a record Rs 1,60,000 crore in revenue on sale of diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene at subsidized rates.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,091.20,down by 37.00 points or 0.72% after trading as high as 5,121.60 and as low as 5,090.00. There were 8 stocks advancing against 42 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were HCL Tech up by 6.56%, Ambuja Cement up by 2.29%, ACC up by 0.94%, HDFC Bank by 0.49% and GAIL up by 0.36%. While, SAIL down by 3.89%, Jindal Steel  down by 6.69%, Wipro down by 2.72%, Hindalco down by 2.48% and Coal India down by 2.25% were the major losers on the index.

 Asian equity indices were trading in red; KLSE Composite down 0.03%, Hang Seng index down by 0.65%, Nikkei 225 down 1.84%, Taiwan Weighted down 0.53%, Shanghai Composite down 0.23%, Kospi Composite Index down 1.27% and Straits Times down 0.46% while Jakarta Composite was up by 0.08%, there was only the gainer.