Sensex moves in positive territory; Nifty remains listless

Indian equity benchmarks remained listless since morning as investors were waiting for the outcome of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting. Though there were expectations that the ECB will announce some monetary easing to revive growth, investors were not so keen to make any strong positions. In currency markets rupee fell against dollar in the late morning session on Thursday as oil companies increased the demand for greenback to pay for imports. On sectoral front FMCG stocks, among the notable movers in the previous session, were trading weak this morning on profit taking. Capital goods, power, oil, consumer durables and automobile stocks too were mostly trading lower. Select metal, realty and healthcare stocks were edging up a bit, while information technology and bank stocks were attracting buyers. In global markets, Asian shares were trading lackluster ahead of conclusion of European Central Bank's policy meeting later in the day today. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive side while 146 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,318.61 up by 5.27 points or 0.03% after touching a high of 17,339.25 and low of 17,294.74. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.26% and Small cap index was up by 0.12%.

The top gainers on the BSE sectoral space were, IT up by 2.01%, TECk up by 1.35%, Bankex up by 0.47%, Realty up by 0.45% and Health Care up by 0.32%. While FMCG down by 1.17%, Power down by 0.78%, Capital Goods down by 0.70%, Auto down by 0.63% and Consumer Durables down by 0.53% were the top losers on the sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 3.51%, Infosys up by 2.89%, Jindal Steel up by 2.10%, Cipla up by 1.15% and ICICI Bank up by 1.15%. On the flip side, BHEL was down by 3.00%, Bharti Airtel  was down by 2.58%, ITC  was down by 1.81%,Tata Motors was down by 1.46% and Hero MotoCorp was down by 1.39%, were the top losers on the Sensex. 

Meanwhile, India Inc has requested the government to opt auctions and transparent methods for allocating natural resources to avoid repetition of collapse such as over allotment of coal blocks and spectrum. It is seeking urgent policy action to prevent India's growth story from sliding down, and also wants the UPA to make out a standardized technique towards reforms with its coalition partners.

Adi Godrej, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said that one of the key issues coming in the way of reforms is that the economy seems to have taken a direction towards far too much corruption and misappropriation. By adding further he said, perhaps some attention is being diverted to that part of the economic problem, which has affected decision making.

The government is facing challenges within the coalition to get certain modification implemented, and it has complexity with the opposition in getting the other developments through the parliamentary process. Godrej suggested that the government should mull over some 'give and take' with the opposition and make more effort together for a common approach towards reforms to move further. 

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,224.20, down by 1.50 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 5,231.05 and 5,217.65. There were 23 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index, while two remain unchanged.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Wipro up by 3.29%, Infosys up by 2.93%, Jindal Steel up by 2.22%, Ambuja Cements up by 1.58% and JP Associates up by 1.57%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 3.01%, IDFC down by 2.74%, Power Grid down by 2.73%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.52% and ITC down by 1.68%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian indices were trading in red; Nikkei 225 down by 0.07%, Hang Seng index down by 0.05%, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.55%, Straits Times down by 0.43% and KLSE Composite down by 1.43% while Shanghai Composite up by 0.22%, Kospi Composite Index up by 0.50% and Jakarta Composite up by 0.36% were the gainer .