Indian equities continue weak trade in late afternoon session

Indian equities added losses to continue its weak trade below neutral line in the late afternoon session on account of selling in front line counters coupled with subdued clues from European counterparts. Traders were seen piling up position in Auto, Oil & Gas and Capital Goods sector while selling was witnessed in FMCG, Metal and Consumer Durable sector. ITC and HUL from FMCG sector was trading in red exerting pressure on the market. Sterlite Industries, Hindalco, Sesa Goa, SAIL and Tata Steel from Metal pack were trading in red drifting markets lower. On the other hand, Hero MotoCorp, M&M and Tata Motors from Auto pack were seen trading firm in green driving the markets higher. Industry heavyweight RIL was trading with gain of around two and half percent giving the much needed support. L&T and BHEL from Capital Good space was trading in green edging the markets higher.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mixed while the European markets were too trading on a mixed note. The Bank of England policymakers were unanimous in retaining quantitative easing program at £375 billion and the interest rate unchanged at 0.50%, according to the minutes of the meeting held on August 1 and 2. Also, the number of people claiming jobless benefits in the UK declined in July. The claimant count declined by 5,900 persons monthly to 1.59 million in July. The seasonally adjusted claimant count rate for the UK was 4.9% in July, unchanged from June. On the home turf, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 5,400 and 17,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1269:1358 while 133 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,709.13, down by 19.07 points or 0.11% has touched a high and a low of 17,763.59 and 17,655.84 respectively. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The broader indices gained additional traction; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.33% and 0.37% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 1.00%, Oil & Gas up by 0.99%, Capital Goods up by 0.93%, Realty up by 0.57% and Health Care up by 0.52%. While, FMCG down by 1.63%, Metal down by 1.42%, Consumer Durables down by 0.80%, IT down by 0.43% and Bankex down by 0.34% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 2.99%, Cipla up by 2.74%, RIL up by 2.67%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.15% and L&T up by 1.47%.

On the flip side, ITC down by 3.10%, Sterlite Industries down by 2.80%, Hindalco Industries down by 2.29%, Gail India down by 2.15% and Wipro down by 1.90% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, amid growing non-performing assets’ (NPA) concerns, newly appointed Finance Minister P Chidambaram will hold a meeting for conducting quarterly review of Public Sector Banks (PSB’s) on August 18. The meeting, which is expected to take on board, issues such as NPAs, agriculture loans, credit to the infrastructure sector and matters related to human resource, comes in the backdrop of the slowing economy growth, higher inflation and policy paralysis. Heads of public sector financial institutions like NABARD, SIDBI, NHB, IIFCL and Exim Bank are reportedly expected to attend the meeting with the finance minister.

Back on macro’s, hit by higher interest rates and global down turn, India’s economy grew to at a near-decade low of 5.3% in the January-March quarter. Meanwhile, industrial growth, as measured by IIP, contracted 1.8% for the month of June, against the growth figure of 2.5% in May. However, in a bit of relief, the wholesale price index (WPI), India's main inflation gauge, unexpectedly slipped to 6.87% for the month of July, its lowest since January 2010, as compared to 7.25% (Provisional) for the previous month. Nevertheless, central bank has upwardly revised the baseline projection for WPI inflation for March 2013 from its April projection of 6.5% to 7%.

In a separate development, Finance Minister has called upon a meeting of top tax officers later this month to address the concerns relating to sluggish imports impacting revenues, particularly on customs duty front in the first four months of 2012-13. Finance Minister would be meeting chief commissioners and director generals of income tax, central excise, customs and service tax.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,373.65, down by 6.70 points or 0.12% and has touched a high and a low of 5,390.65 and 5,362.05 respectively. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 declining ones on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were IDFC up by 4.43%, Ranbaxy Laboratories up by 2.81%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.77%, Cipla up by 2.58% and RIL up by 2.55%.

On the flip side, Sterlite Industries down by 3.15%, ITC down by 3.14%, Hindalco Industries down by 2.29%, Gail India down by 2.13% and Sesa Goa down by 2.07%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in green; Kospi Composite added 0.05%, Nikkei surged by 1.88% Jakarta Composite rose 0.10%, Straits Times up by 0.09% and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.30%. On the flip side, KLSE Composite slid 0.29%, Shanghai Composite lost 0.32%, Hang Seng shed 0.45% were losers amongst Asian pack.

The European markets were trading on a mixed note with, France’s CAC 40 descending 0.13%, Germany’s DAX added 0.07% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 jumped 0.03%.