Benchmarks trade flat due to lack of global and local triggers

Domestic benchmarks have made a flat start with positive bias due to lack of global and local triggers. Moreover, global cues too remained unexciting as the US markets settled in consolidation mood for the third consecutive day, major indices made a mixed closing while the Asian markets too were trading mixed though Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao hinted for some stimulus by saying that easing inflation is allowing room to adjust monetary policy. Back home, the bourses are trading with slender gains ahead of three CAG reports, which will be tabled in Parliament today. Reportedly, these include the coal block report, the Delhi airport and the special purposes vehicles for ultra mega power projects. However, the gains remained capped as the worries of deficient rain and draught like situation kept markets under pressure, rice production is poised to slump from a record, as the worst monsoon since 2009 has reduced planting. On the sectoral front, auto, realty and oil and gas remained the top gainers while, software, fast moving consumer goods and technology witnessed the most selling pressure, dragging down the Sensex. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 913 shares on the gaining side against 603 shares on the losing side while 73 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,752.22; about 24 points higher compared to its previous closing of 17,728.20, and has touched a high and a low of 17,763.59 and 17,707.24 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 17,742.98, up by 14.78 points or 0.08%. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 57.46% stocks advancing against 37.95% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.37% and 0.35% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 0.93%, Realty up by 0.78%, Oil and Gas up by 0.52%, CG up by 0.48% and HC up by 0.38%. While, IT down by 0.63%, FMCG down by 0.42%, TECk down by 0.35%, Metal down by 0.21% and CD down by 0.02% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 1.80%, M&M up by 1.46%, Tata Motors up by 1.21%, HDFC up by 1.09% and Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.06%.

On the flip side, Wipro was down by 1.32%, GAIL was down by 0.92%, Infosys was down by 0.86%, ITC was down by 0.82% and TCS was down by 0.80% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India has lost about 7 billion units in power generation during April-June this year, while about 2.9 billion units due to shortage of coal and 4 billion units on the back of shortage of gas. This records a peak power shortage of about 9 percent loss from April-June this year.

There is an overall shortage of power in the country in terms of energy and peaking power. According to the official data, the government has planned to generate around 920,000 million units (MUs) of electricity this fiscal. Out of the total, 760,000 MUs would be from coal-based plants.

The government might also start gearing for hydro power potential of the country by adding about 122,000 MUs during the same period. It also plans to import 5,000 MUs of electricity from Bhutan during the fiscal, the data noted.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,385.95; about 5 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5380.35, and has touched a high and a low of 5,390.65 and 5,373.50 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,386.10, up by 5.75 points or 0.11%. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were IDFC up by 3.52%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.61%, HCL Tech up by 1.34%, M&M up by 1.28% and Reliance Infra up by 1.26%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.49%, ITC down by 0.90%, HDFC Bank down by 0.89%, GAIL down by 0.85% and Infosys down by 0.82%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian markets were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite was down by 2.73 points or 0.13% to 2,116.22, Jakarta Composite lost 5.38 points or 0.11% to 4,137.02, KLSE Composite was down by 3.09 points or 0.19% to 1,650.69 and Kospi Composite has declined by 1.71 points or 0.09% to 1,955.61.

On the other hand, Hang Seng was up by 52.59 points or 0.26% to 20,104.88, Nikkei surged by 121.06 points or 1.36% to 9,046.10, Straits Times was up by 9.26 points or 0.30% to 3,071.37, and Taiwan Weighted gained 31.81 points or 0.43% to 7,499.55.