Sensex, Nifty regains some lost ground; trade continues in negative territory

After retreating to lower levels following a positive start, Indian equity markets regained some lost ground but still trading in negative territory in the late morning session. The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty remained lackluster amid alternate bout of buying and selling. In currency markets, rupee depreciated against dollar on continued demand for the American currency from importers for month end payments. On sectoral front, metal stocks were mostly trading lower. Consumer durables and capital goods stocks were among the other notable losers. Bank, automobile and oil stocks have come off their lows. IT, FMCG and power stocks were edging up a bit from their lower levels. In global markets, Asian shares were trading mixed on Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke likely speech in bankers' meet at Jackson Hole on August 31. Back home, the market breadth favoring negative trend; there were 766 shares on the gaining side against 1,513 shares on the losing side while 117 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,658.89 down by 19.92 points or 0.11% after touching a high of 17712.35 and low of 17632.60. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a negative note; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.73%, while Small cap index was down by 0.72%.

The top gainers on the BSE sectoral space were, IT up by 0.93%, TECk up by 0.56%, FMCG up by 0.32% and Power up by 0.25%, while Metal down by 1.94%, CD down by 1.32%, CG down by 1.04%, Auto down by 0.54% and Bankex down by 0.46% were top losers on the index.

Tata Power up by 2.64%, Infosys up by 1.22%, TCS up by 1.20%, NTPC up by 0.95% and ITC up by 0.51% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Sterlite Industries down by 3.81%, Jindal Steel down by 3.58%, Tata Steel down by 2.14%, Hindalco Industries down by 1.68% and L&T down by 1.33% were the major losers on the index.

Mean while , granting government more time to sell 2G mobile radio airwaves through an open auction, the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday extended the time for fresh auction of 2G spectrum licenses till January 11, 2013. The apex court, besides extending the deadline has also allowed those carriers whose licenses were set to be revoked to operate till Jan 18, 2013. The court, however, warned that if the auction process is not completed by the fixed deadline, it may initiate contempt proceedings against the officer concerned and impose a steep penalty.

Re-allocation of these radio airwaves come following the Supreme Court’s verdict on February 2 for cancelling all the 122 spectrum licenses allotted in 2008 during the tenure of the former telecom minister A Raja. Moreover, this auction comes as the last chance for companies including Telenor and Sistema to win back their permits that are set to be revoked after court order.

However, there comes a rider with such order, as a bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan had on Friday urged the Telecom Secretary to file an affidavit giving an undertaking that the 122 2G spectrum licences cancelled by its February 2 judgment will be auctioned in a time-bound manner. 

The undertaking was sought post the Centre twice failed to meet the deadline set by the apex court for auctioning. The court had earlier extended its original June 2 deadline to August 31, 2012, refusing to grant 400 days to the government to complete the process of fresh auctioning. Earlier, the government sought time until November 12 to begin the auction and 40 days from the completion of auction to allocate frequencies. Further, setting conditions, the court has directed that it would not accept the undertaking from officers below the rank of secretary.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,343.30, down by 6.95 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 5,359.25 and 5,331.80. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Tata Power up by 2.64%, ITC up by 1.25%, Infosys up by 1.19%, NTPC by 0.86% and DLF up by 0.77%. While, Sterlite Industries down by 4.13%, Jindal Steel down by 3.48%, Sesa Goa down by 2.40%, Tata Steel down by 2.19% and JP Associates down by 1.78% were the top losers on the index.

Asian indices were trading  mixed; Nikkei 225 down by 0.74%, KLSE Composite down by 0.03%, Taiwan Weighted down by 1.42%, Jakarta Composite  down by 0.13%, while Hang Seng index up by 0.09%, Straits Times up by 0.10%, Kospi Composite Index up by 0.02%, Shanghai Composite up  by 1.26% were few  gainers.