Markets marginally down; Nifty above 5,200 level

Indian equity markets are marginally down amid alternate bouts of buying and selling in the late morning session, ahead of European Central Bank and Federal Reserve's meet. The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were moving around their previous closing values, as participants booked profits after recent gains. However, investors were waiting for some positive triggers in the form of reforms by the Indian government. In currency markets, rupee opened lower on Wednesday, but currently trading in green zone against the American currency. On sectoral front healthcare, realty and capital goods stocks were trading in green, while metal, TECk and IT were pulling the markets down. In global markets, Asian shares witnessing a weak trend following weak Chinese manufacturing data. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,475 shares on the gaining side against 891 shares on the losing side while 104 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,213.65 down by 22.53 points or 0.13% after touching a high of 17281.76 and a low of 17189.16. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a positive note; the BSE Mid cap index was up 0.56%, while Small cap index was up 0.86%.

The top gainers on the BSE sectoral space were, HC up by 0.89%, Realty up by 0.88%, CG up by 0.77%, Power up by 0.49% and FMCG up by 0.15% while Metal down by 0.77%, TECk down by 0.56%, IT down by 0.54%, PSU down by 0.47% and Bankex down by 0.26% were top losers on the BSE sectoral space.

Cipla up by 4.25%, BHEL up by 1.53%, HDFC up by 1.17% Tata Power up by 1.17% and SBI up by 1.03% were major gainers on the Sensex, while Coal India down by 3.62%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.28%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.10%, HDFC Bank down by 1.08% and ONGC down by 0.89% were the major losers in the index.

Meanwhile, amid the lingering reform measures, the worries of the government are not looking settling down soon. A day after the RBI brought down its expected GDP growth for the year from 7% to 6.5%, the fiscal deficit in the first quarter of this financial year stood at a little more than a third of the Budget estimate for 2012-13. Fiscal deficit touched 37.1% of the budgeted amount at the end of June as the government struggled to curb expenditures, though it’s slightly lower than the deficit registered for the same period last year of 39.4%.

As per the latest data of the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), in absolute term the fiscal deficit or shortfall between expenses and revenues in the April-June quarter rose to Rs 1.90 lakh crore, while for the full 2012-13 fiscal, the government has budgeted the fiscal deficit at Rs 5.13 lakh crore, or 5.1% of GDP. Indicating the revenue-driven deficit, total expenditure stood at 20.9% of the budgeted amount as compared to 20.8% last year. The revenue receipts were 12.7% of the budget amount. The deficit was primarily funded by domestic borrowings. The revenue deficit was 44% of the budget estimates at Rs 1.53 lakh crore and the primary deficit was 67% of the budget estimates in the April-June period at Rs 1.30 lakh crore.

Non-debt capital receipts stood at Rs 2,402 crore, constituting 5.8% of the budget estimates for entire the year and Tax revenue stood at 13.6% of the budgeted amount as compared to 11.8% last year. While, Plan expenditure stood at Rs 86,221 crore, accounting for 16.5% of the estimates at Rs 521,025 crore.  

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,223.05, down by 5.95 points or 0.11% after trading in arrange of 5,240.45 and 5,212.65. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The major gainers on the Nifty were Cipla up by 4.22%, Reliance Infra up by 2.47%, Ambuja Cement up by 2.44%, JP Associates by 1.50% and Kotak Bank up by 1.91%. While, Coal India down by 3.77%, BPCL down by 2.08%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.40%, TCS down by 1.24% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.23% were the major losers on the index.

Asian indices were trading on a mix note ; Nikkei 225 down 0.61%, Taiwan Weighted down 0.03%,  Kospi Composite Index down 0.11% and Jakarta Composite down by 0.66%  while Hang Seng index was up by 0.18%, Straits Times was up 0.19%, KLSE Composite up 0.07%, and Shanghai Composite up 0.86%.