Logjam in Parliament lets trade remain sideways

Indian equity markets continue to showcase sideways movement as wary traders have turned defensive in absence of positive trigger, both on domestic as well as global front. The logjam in Parliament, which has entered its second week on Monday with BJP members stridently demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue of coal block allocation, seems keeping the investor’s choosy of investing into risky asset class such as equities, even after Prime Minister Statement of challenging the CAG report findings before PAC.

Major laggards on BSE sectoral front, are stocks belonging to Bankex, Realty and Capital Goods counters, however, stocks from Oil & Gas, Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Health Care counters, are attempting to minimize loss. 30 share barometer, Sensex, dropping over 25 points, is currently holding off its 17500 bastion, while, widely followed index, Nifty, despite gyrating in red, is trading above the 5350 level. Meanwhile, broader indices are showing mixed trend.

On the global front, Asian shares have slipped deeper in negative terrain as investors await further clues from the annual Jackson Hole symposium to be hosted by the Kansas Federal Reserve later in the week. Meanwhile, European shares, which too got off to a negative start, added to the pessimism. However, trading volumes in European markers are expected to be thin as Europe's largest the UK market, remains shut for a bank holiday.

Closer home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,758.12, down by 25.09 points or 0.14% after touching a high of 17820.07 and low of 17,743.80. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1231:1212, while 123 shares remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.02%, while Small cap index was up by 0.07%.

The top gainers on the BSE sectoral space were, Oil & Gas up by 0.63%, Fast Moving Consumer Goods up by 0.21%, Health Care up by 0.18%, Consumer Durable up by 0.11% and Public Sector Undertaking up by 0.01% while Bankex down by 0.99%, Realty down by 0.90%, Capital Goods down by 0.66%, Power down by 0.61% and Information Technology down by 0.53% were top losers on the index.

Bharti Airtel up by 2.18%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.49%, Cipla up by 1.38%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.99% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.93% were major gainers on the Sensex, while Jindal Steel down by 3.17%, Tata Motors down by 1.63%, ICICI Bank down by 1.27%, BHEL down by 1.15% and Sterlite Industries down by 1.11% were the major losers on the index.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has widened its scope of probe for alleged breach of controls against money laundering and terror financing, from the affairs of British banking giants HSBC to a host of other foreign banks. In double trouble for these foreign players, capital market regulator SEBI too may join the investigations, as there are qualms of funds from these banks being routed to the stock market through foreign investors and other entities.

The investigations, which are made to ensure that the foreign banks' compliance to various fair banking norms in the wake of certain global event follow developments in the US, where a host of European banks, besides HSBC and Standard Chartered, are being probed for their alleged role in exposing the American financial system to money laundering and terror-financing risk.

The RBI, in the previous week, initiated inspection of the Anti- Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) systems of StanChart and HSBC, following the news reports of involvement of HSBC, USA, in money laundering activities and of Standard Chartered Bank, USA, for violating sanctions imposed on Iran by US Government.

Earlier this month, the New York State Department of Financial Services blamed Standard Chartered of hiding about 60,000 secret transactions with the Iranian government, involving a whopping $250 billion, besides exposing the US financial system to terrorists, weapon dealers and drug kingpins.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,376.20, down by 10.50 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 5,399.15 and 5,374.70. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.22%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.50%, Ranbaxy up by 1.45%, Cipla up by 1.32% and Cairn India up by 1.30%. While, Jindal Steel down by 2.78%, PNB down by 2.47%, Axis Bank down by 2.27%, Bank of Baroda down by 1.92% and Tata Motors down by 1.67% were top losers on the index.

Most Asian indices were trading in red; Kospi Composite Index declined 0.10%, Straits Times descended 0.17%, Hang Seng index lost 0.45%, Shanghai Composite plunged 1.17% and Taiwan Weighted slid 0.12%, while Nikkei 225 edged higher by 0.16%, KLSE Composite was up by 0.03% were the only gainers.European shares have got off to a negative start; with France’s CAC 40 trading lower by 0.28%, Germany DAX dipping by 0.23%. While, FTSE100 remains shut on account of UK Summer Bank holiday