Benchmarks pare gains; trade continues in red

Indian equities pared gains to continue trade in red in the late morning session. On the regional front, most of the Asian markets were trading in the red at this point of time though the cuts were marginal but the report that Japanese machinery orders fell in August was weighing down the sentiments. Back home, traders were seen piling up position in, Realty, Power and HC sector while selling was witnessed in FMCG, Auto and CD sector. DLF, Unitech, HDIL, Oberoi Realty, Indiabulls Real Estate and Sobha Developers from Realty pack were seen trading in green edging the markets higher. Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Cipla, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Glaxosmithkline Pharmaceutical and Divi's Laboratories from HC pack were seen trading firm in green. FMCG majors - ITC, Hindustan Unilever, United Spirits, Colgate-Palmolive (India), Godrej Consumer Products and Dabur India were capping the markets’ gains. While, Auto majors Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp too were pressurizing the markets. Mean while, the IT stocks such as TCS, Wipro, HCL Tech, Oracle Financial Services Software, and Tech Mahindra edged higher on reporting that Indian IT spending will reach $71.5 billion in 2013, growing 7.7% from the $66.4 billion forecasted for 2012.

In the scrip specific development, Jubilant FoodWorks gained on opening first outlet of Dunkin’ Donuts in Gurgaon. Unitech jumped on resolving disputes with Telenor. Tata Steel edged higher on plan to invest in new manufacturing facilities in Netherlands. Marg rose on getting nod to mop up Rs 500 crore via QIP. Bharti Airtel soared on investing $150 million in African operations.

The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5,600 and 18600 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative, in the ratio of 940:1078.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18609.21 down by 21.89 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 18670.43 and 18581.49. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.10% and Small cap index was down by 0.05%.

On the BSE sectoral space, Realty up by 1.53%, Power up by 0.49%, HC up by 0.24%, IT up by 0.10% and TECk up by 0.08%, were the top gainers. While, FMCG down by 0.69%, Auto up by 0.63%, CD down by 0.31% and CG down by 0.05% was only the losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 1.20%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 0.82%, Wipro up by 0.80%, HDFC Bank up by 0.79% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.73%. On the other hand, SBI down by 1.42%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.04%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.99%, ITC down by 0.94% and Sterlite Industries down by 0.94 % was only the loser on the Sensex. 

Mean while , the Petroleum Ministry has sought nearly Rs 61,000 crore from the Finance Ministry to balance the losses added by public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) for the 1st two quarters of the present fiscal. The 3 OMCs - IOC, BPCL, and HPCL added total losses of Rs 89,000 crore on selling petroleum products at subsidized rates during the first 6 months of the fiscal.

Oil India, ONGC, and GAIL (India) contributions will be about 28,000 crore from these upstream companies. Upstream companies had bore the subsidy burden of Rs 14,000 crore in the 1st quarter, and a similar amount is expected in the 2nd quarter. In the 1st quarter under recovery was Rs 47,000 crore while in the 2nd quarter it stood at Rs 42,000 crore.

The Finance Ministry has issued letters to all ministries in quest of cash in 1st supplementary demand for grant which is likely in the upcoming winter session.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,643.85, down by 8.30 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 5,666.55 and 5,636.95. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up by 1.65%, DLF up by 1.36%, HDFC Bank up by 0.91%, HCL Tech up by 0.90% and Siemens was up by 0.83%. While, Maruti down by 1.38%, SBI down by 1.20%, Bajaj-Auto down by 1.19%, ITC down by 1.07% and Axis Bank  down by 0.95% were the losers on the index

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Straits Times was down by 0.25%, Kospi Composite was down by 0.96%, Nikkei 225 was down by 0.38%, Jakarta Composite down by 0.26%, Shanghai Composite was down by 0.26%, Taiwan Weighted was down by 1.74% and KLSE Composite was down by 0.19% while Hang Seng was up by 0.18% was the lone gainers.