Indian equities trim gains; Sensex holds 18,000 mark

Indian equities trimmed gains to hit fresh intraday low but continued its firm trade in green in the late afternoon session taking clues from European counterparts. Investors have started eyeing the US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting decision on quantitative easing measures on conclusion of the two day meeting. Also, the advance tax data for the second installment, which is due on September 15, 2012, could provide cues on the likely corporate earnings for Q2 September 2012 which may provide further direction for the market. Traders were seen piling up position in Oil & Gas, PSU and Capital Goods sector while selling was witnessed in Health Care, Metal and Auto sector. Hectic activity is observed in Real Estate stocks on reports that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) is investigating around 70 real estate developers around the country for entering into one-sided agreements with buyers. Auto stocks were under pressure on reports that the cabinet committee on political affairs (CCPA) may meet today i.e. September 13, 2012 to consider raising diesel prices. In the scrip specific development, Hathway Cable & Datacom and Den Networks, cable television services provider, touched 52-week high today on hopes of hike in FDI cap. Sesa Goa was trading in red on reports that the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest has suspended environmental clearance of 93 Goa mines.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading on a mixed note while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. The German court ratified the European Stability Mechanism and stated that the bailout fund must limit the German liability to €190 billion and any increase must get parliamentary approval. In addition, the court also required the bailout fund to consult both the lower and upper houses of the parliament for all confidential decisions. With the setting up of the permanent bailout fund, the euro zone is one step closer in providing a second line of defense after the European Central Bank announced a policy to buy unlimited amount of euro bonds last week. On the home turf, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,400 and 18,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1216:1447 while 151 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,013.98 up by 13.95 points or 0.08% after touching a high of 18,062.68 and low of 17,976.28. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The broader indices too pared some gains; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading up by 0.08% and 0.04% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.80%, PSU up by 0.70%, Capital Goods up by 0.67%, FMCG up by 0.31% and Power up by 0.24%. While, HealthCare down by 0.96%, Metal down by 0.24%, Auto down by 0.19%, Realty down by 0.17% and TECk down by 0.17% were top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 2.20%, BHEL up by 1.87%, ONGC up by 1.52%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.27% and Gail India up by 1.17%.

On the flip side, Cipla was down by 2.34%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.14%, Jindal Steel down by 1.21%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.10% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.99% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, after slew of international credit rating agencies that have flagged concerns over India’s growth story, HSBC has now scaled down its economic growth forecasts for India for fiscal 2013 and 2014 from 6.2 per cent earlier to 5.7 per cent on account of 'the lack of reform traction', a more 'challenging' global economic backdrop and expectations the central bank will push back the timing for rate cuts. Further, the bank has also slashed its gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for economy for fiscal 2014 to 6.9% from 7.4%.

Earlier this month, US investment house, Morgan Stanley, citing a combination of weak external demand, low private investment and poor government finances, pruned India’s economic growth forecast to 5.1 per cent from previous projected figure of 5.8 per cent in the year ending March. It also reduced its estimate of GDP growth for 2013/14 to 6.1 per cent from 6.6 per cent. Besides, Morgan Stanley has also warned that policy sluggishness could push India’s growth further down to 4.3 per cent in the current fiscal year.

Confirming a sharp slowdown in Asia’s economy, Indian economic growth languished near its slowest in three years in the June quarter but was slightly better than expected at 5.5 percent.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,433.30, up by 2.30 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 5,447.45 and 5,421.85. There were 26 stocks advancing against 23 declines on the index, while 1 stock remain unchanged.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 2.07%, BPCL up by 2.06%, BHEL up by 1.82%, Reliance Infrastructure up by 1.64% and ONGC up by 1.39%.

On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.69%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.07%, Ranbaxy Laboratories down by 1.67%, Sesa Goa down by 1.41% and Jindal Steel down by 1.38%, were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading on a mixed note; KLSE Composite jumped higher by 0.82%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.39%, Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.11% and Kospi Composite Index was trading in green with 0.03% gains. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 0.76%, Hang Seng index dropped 0.14%, Jakarta Composite descended 0.05% and Strait Times edged lower by 0.05%.

The European markets were trading in red with, France’s CAC 40 descended 0.58%, Germany’s DAX lost 0.28% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.11%.