Benchmarks trade flat in morning deals on weak global cues

After showcasing rally over a percent in the previous session, Indian key benchmarks have made a negative start as investors booked their profit amid sluggish global cues. Overnight, the US markets fell after the S&P 500 hit its highest level in four years as the benchmark index faced technical resistance and traders cashed in recent gains while, most of the Asian counters were trading in the negative terrain at this point of time mainly due to Japan’s trade deficit widened to 517.4 billion yen ($6.5 billion) in July, compared with a revised 60.3 billion yen surplus in June, mainly due to Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis and a slowdown in China, which dragged down nation’s exports. Back home, the bourses, after a soft start, pared some losses and are trading flat at this point of time. PSU oil marketing companies like BPCL, HPCL and IOC all opened lower after minister of state for petroleum R P N Singh said that the government is not planning to give up its control over diesel, cooking gas and kerosene prices by withdrawing subsidy on them. However, microfinance companies were trading with traction as they are expected to approach the central bank for higher margins. On sectoral front, auto witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by healthcare and public sector undertaking while, technology, banking and realty remained the few losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 878 shares on the gaining side against 651 shares on the losing side while 95 shares remained unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,827.25; about 58 points lower compared to its previous closing of 17,885.26, and has touched a high and a low of 17,881.70 and 17,800.29 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 17,880.46, down by 4.80 points or 0.03%. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 54.06% stocks advancing against 40.09% declines. The broader indices too were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 0.25% and 0.21% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 0.72%, HC up by 0.64%, PSU up by 0.49%, Oil and Gas up by 0.23% and CD up by 0.18% while, TECk down by 0.29%, Bankex down by 0.26%, Realty down by 0.20% and CG down by 0.18% remained the few losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 1.83%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.26%, Tata Motors up by 1.22%, Sun Pharma up by 1.07% and BHEL up by 0.95%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 2.88%, Sterlite Industries was down by 1.06%, Wipro was down by 0.79%, HDFC was down by 0.67% and Tata Power was down by 0.65% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) reported that despite delay in approvals, land acquisitions and other related issues faced by infrastructure sector completion of projects in FY13 will jump by 39 % over last year. The total value of the completed project in FY 13 is estimated to rise by Rs 5.7 lakh crore compared to Rs 4.1 lakh crore in 2011-12.

CMIE stated that the delays are usual and many of the industrial and infrastructure projects end up missing their time limit by at least a few months because of delays faced in land acquisition, obtaining government clearance, operational reasons and other related issues.

The total project completion during the quarter was 20.2% higher than the year ago. The overall value of projects completed in the June quarter stood at Rs 79807 crore, as 256 projects worth Rs 61169 crore which had not disclosed their completion schedule got commissioned in the June quarter.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,395.75; about 26 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,421.00, and has touched a high and a low of 5,420.10 and 5,394.80 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,419.05, down by 1.95 points or 0.04%. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hindalco up by 1.82%, Tata Motors up by 1.26%, Sun Pharma up by 1.24%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.13% and Dr Reddy up by 0.91%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.96%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.32%, Sesa Goa down by 1.19%, Wipro down by 0.82% and IDFC down by 0.69%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down by 8.87 points or 0.42% to 2,109.40, Hang Seng lost 170.28 points or 0.85% to 19,929.81, Nikkei 225 declined by 78.89 points or 0.86% to 9,078.03, Straits Times was down by 26.04 points or 0.83% to 3,040.76, Kospi Composite was lower by 24.61 points or 1.27% to 1,918.56 and Taiwan Weighted has lost 27.73 points or 0.37% to 7,479.03.

On the other hand, KLSE Composite was the lone gainer, up by 3.65 points or 0.22% to 1,649.79.

Jakarta Composite is closed due to Idul Fitri holidays.