Benchmarks extend losses; Realty, IT, and TECk drags

Indian equities continued to trade weak in the late morning session. While, all the Asian equity indices were trading in the green as investor risk aversion eased after the European Central Bank said it was ready to buy bonds of troubled euro zone countries. Japanese shares gained the most before the Bank of Japan (BOJ) conclude a policy meeting, while the yen slid against most of its peers, the weakest since Sept 19 and supported the sentiments. However, BOJ, which last month boosted its asset-purchase program by 10 trillion yen to 55 trillion yen, is unlikely to take any further easing steps. The South Korea market too was trading up as won climbed to an 11 month high before jobs data in the US. Back home, traders were seen piling up position in Auto, FMCG and Metal sector while selling was witnessed in Realty, IT and TECk sector. Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Moto Corp and Exide Industries from Auto pack were seen trading in green edging the markets higher. ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle India, Godrej Consumer Products, Dabur India and Tata Global Beverages from FMCG pack were seen trading firm in green. IT majors - Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra were capping the markets’ gains while Realty majors DLF, Unitech, HDIL, Oberoi Realty and Indiabulls Real Estate too were pressurizing the markets.

In the scrip specific development, HDFC Bank edged higher on entering into tie-up with IOC for rural banking. Kiri Industries gained on getting nod to open FCCBs issue worth Rs 175 crore. Onward Technologies rose on opening new development centre.  M&M surged on selling 58,689 Two Wheelers in H1FY13.  Britannia Industries jumped on plan to sell 6 acres real estate land in Bangalore.

The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5,750 and 18900 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative, in the ratio of 1372:893.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18964.69 down by 93.46 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 19137.29 and 18757.34. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.71% and Small cap index was down by 0.80%.

On the BSE sectoral space, Auto up by 0.98%, FMCG up by 0.70% and Metal up by 0.07% were the top gainers. While, Realty down by 1.81%, IT down by 1.57%, TECk down by 1.57%, HC down by 0.96% and Power down by 0.79% were the top losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.13%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.86%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.61%, Coal India up by 1.30% and Hindalco Industries up by 1.21%. On the other hand, HDFC down by 4.76%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.17%, TCS down by 1.68%, Infosys down by 1.65% and Wipro down by 1.61% was only the loser on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet has cleared the Forward Contract Regulations Amendment (FCRA) Bill, giving a reform boost to the commodity futures market. The Bill will provide more autonomy and power to the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) to regulate the commodity markets effectively.

The FCRA Bill, 2010 was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2010 and was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee that had recommended some changes. In the present Amendment bill all the recommendations have been incorporated.

It will provide financial autonomy to FMC by allowing it to levy fee for generating revenue and hire professionals to strengthen human resource and research capabilities. The Bill will also pave way for introduction of products such as options in commodity derivatives, helping the stakeholders including farmers to take advantage of the price discovery mechanism. It would also make possible the entry of institutional investors.

The retirement age of FMC Chairman and its members will go up to 65 years from 60 years, if Parliament passes the Bill. The Bill also allows setting up of an Appelate Authority to guard against arbitrary regulatory decisions, introduction of products like option and weather/rainfall derivatives and penalty hike on defaulters to Rs 50 lakh from the existing Rs 25 lakh.

 The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,752.70, down by 34.90 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 5,815.35 and 4,888.20. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.13%, M&M up by 2.04%, HUL up by 1.67%, Hindalco up by 1.09% and Coal India was up by 1.08%. While, HDFC down by 4.87%, DLF down by 2.62%, Reliance  Infra down by 2.27%, IDFC down by 2.18% and TCS down by 2.06% were the losers on the index.

 All the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Hang Seng was up by 0.33%, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.80% Straits Times was up by 0.22% KLSE Composite was up by 0.06%, Nikkei 225 was up by 0.38%, Kospi Composite was up by 0.03% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.01%. Financial markets in China remained closed.