Sensex, Nifty continues trading flat in negative territory

After a positive start and a subsequent retreat to lower levels, Indian equity markets continued trading flat in negative territory on the back of stock specific activity. The BSE benchmark declined 39 points, while NSE benchmark slipped 8.90 points. In currency markets, Indian rupee fell against American currency for the fourth straight session as dollar gained against other currencies overseas. On sectoral front information technology, FMCG and metal stocks were off to a subdued start. TECk, PSU, consumer durables and bank stocks were trading in red. Automobile, realty and capital goods stocks were trading higher. In global markets, most of the Asian shares were trading higher on Thursday, with Tokyo leading advances as the yen weakened against the dollar owing to dimming expectations of fresh monetary easing by the US Federal Reserve. Back home, the market breadth favoring negative trend; there were 1,156 shares on the gaining side against 1,171 shares on the losing side while 143 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,688.29, down by 39.91 points or 0.23% has touched a high and a low of 17,763.59 and 17,670.40 respectively. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices up by 0.36% and 0.24% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 1.08%, CG up by 0.58%, HC up by 0.51%, Realty up by 0.48% and Power up by 0.28%. While, FMCG down by 1.89%, Metal down by 1.34%, CD down by 0.52%, IT down by 0.50% and TECk down by 0.33% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 2.97%, Cipla up by 2.39%, HDFC up by 1.91%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.59% and Tata Motors up by 1.49%.

On the flip side, ITC down by 3.06%, Sterlite Industries down by 2.13%, Hindalco down by 2.00%, Wipro down by 1.82% and Tata Steel down by 1.55% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, despite the hike in import duty on certain alloy products, Indian steel imports scaled up by 20% at 5.69 lakh tonne in July. The growth in consumption is the major driver of increased imports. The consumption stood at 7.7% in the first four months of the current fiscal and domestic production soared up by 3.3%.

The alloy steel imports had increased by 32% at 6.01 lakh tonne. As per the latest provisional data from the Joint Plant Committee under the Ministry of Steel, the import of non-alloy or carbon steel products had surged by 37.3% to 1.96 million tonne for the period.

In 2011-12, steel consumption had increased at 6 per cent. For the ongoing fiscal, large steel manufacturers like SAIL and Tata Steel expect domestic consumption to increase between 8-9%.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,371.45, down by 8.90 points or 0.17% and has touched a high and a low of 5,390.65 and 5,364.35 respectively. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were IDFC up by 4.36%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.92%, Cipla up by 2.26%, HDFC up by 1.76% and M&M up by 1.51%.

On the flip side, ITC down by 3.10%, Sterlite Industries down by 2.30%, Wipro down by 1.97%, Hindalco down by 1.79% and SAIL down by 1.73%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in green; Shanghai Composite up by 0.07%, Jakarta Composite up 0.09%, Hang Seng up by 0.10%, Nikkei surged by 1.87%, Straits Times was up by 0.40%, and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.30% while KLSE Composite down by 0.26%, and Kospi Composite declined by 0.18%.