Political upheaval continue to dampen the mood at Dalal Street

Local equity markets have lost some more ground on persistent selling pressure as market-men remain uncertain on whether the Government bowing to political pressure would announce partial rollback in recently taken policy measures, which have taken the markets higher near 14 months high level in the previous week. Political upheaval on account of  Trinamool Congress, key ally of the country's ruling coalition’s decision to withdraw support to UPA in protest against the government move of hiking diesel price hike and opening up the multi-brand retail sector, has mainly casted a shadow on the equity markers from early deals.

Further, even the negative opening of European equities is all set to exert added selling pressure on the Indian equity markets, which at this point of time are atleast outperforming their global peers. Meanwhile, European equities fell on Thursday as weak Chinese manufacturing data reignited global growth concerns, hitting miners, while euro zone banks continued to trim recent gains on uncertainty about if and when Spain would apply for a bailout. Basic resources shares dropped as data showed manufacturing output in China, the world's largest consumer of metals, dipped to its lowest level in 10 months.

Closer home, 30 share barometer index of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Sensex, losing over century of points is trading below the 18400 level, while 50 share index of National Stock Exchange (NSE), Nifty, despite losing over half a percent, is trading above the 5550 level. Moreover, the broader indices too have enticed additional weakness. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which have thumped advances in the ratio of 1472:1018, while 119 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,378.37, down by 117.64 points or 0.64% after touching a high of 18,443.92 and low of 18,291.93. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The broader indices too added weakness; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading lower by 0.50% each.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, TECk up by 0.61%, IT up by 0.52% and Auto up by 0.09%. While, CG down by 1.83%, Power down by 1.45%, Metal down by 1.11%, Oil & Gas down by 0.85% and Realty down by 0.76% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 1.63%, TCS up by 1.34%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.10%, Tata Motors up by 1.02% and Jindal Steel up by 0.93%.

On the flip side, GAIL India down by 3.45%, BHEL down by 3.24%, HDFC down by 2.62%, Sterlite Industries down by 2.50% and L&T down by 1.98% were top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, fair-trade regulator, Competition Commission of India (CCI), which has sent notices to 17 car makers, seeking their explanation on the alleged anti-competitive practice of selling spare parts to consumers at higher prices, is likely to schedule its hearing next month. The notices were sent to companies after the investigating arm of the competition watchdog, director general (DG) submitted an investigation report highlighting the anti-competitive practices of the companies, the name of which remain undisclosed.

Further, CCI is now pursuing the case under Section 4 of the Competition Act that relates to abuse of dominant position by enterprises. The probe was conducted after a complaint was filed with CCI last year against certain car makers for allegedly misusing dominant market position. Going by the complaint, the carmakers were making available spare parts only through their authorized dealers, who in turn sold them on high rate.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,561.80, down by 38.25 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 5,581.35 and 5,534.90. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BPCL up by 2.58%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.65%, TCS up by 1.32%, ONGC up by 1.14% and Bank of Baroda up by 1.13%.

On the flip side, GAIL India down by 3.49%, Reliance Infra down by 3.41%, BHEL down by 3.29%, HDFC down by 2.67% and Sterlite Industries down by 2.65%, were the major losers on the index.

All Asian indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite plunged 2.02%, Hang Seng index declined 0.95%, Jakarta Composite slid 0.67%, KLSE Composite plummeted by 1.36%, Nikkei 225 slid 1.57%, Straits Times shed 0.43%, Kospi Composite Index descended 0.87% and Taiwan Weighted too surrendered 0.70%.

European markets have got off to gloomy start; with CAC 40 declining by 0.85%, DAX losing 0.79% and FTSE100 surrendering 0.76%.