Indian equities continue lackadaisical trade in green

Indian equities added gains to continue its lackadaisical trade in green in the late afternoon session on back of buying in frontline counters and taking cues from European counterparts. Traders were seen piling position in Health Care, Power and Consumer Durables and IT sector while selling was witnessed in Oil & Gas, Realty and Metal sector. In the scrip specific development, JSW Steel was trading under pressure on reports that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a chargesheet against JSW chairman Sajjan Jindal, CEO Vinod Nowal and Senior VP V Sharma in an illegal mining case. KingFisher Airline is locked in its upper circuit limit as top officials of the parent company, UB Group, will meet the representatives of Kingfisher employees to end lockout.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green barring Taiwan Weighted while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. In Europe, Spain is considering requesting a credit line from the EU’s new bailout facility. There has been widespread market speculation in recent weeks that Spain was close to asking for aid from its euro-zone partners. Also, a gauge of German investor sentiment rose more than expected in October, with the Center for European Economic Research, or ZEW, expectations index, rising to minus 11.5 points from a September reading of minus 18.2. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,650 and 18,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1204:1534 while 123 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,597.06, up by 19.36 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 18,705.19 and 18,535.37. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The broader indices were showcasing mixed trend; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.21% and Small cap index was up by 0.10%.

The top gainers on the BSE sectoral space were, Health Care up by 0.48%, Power up by 0.38%, Consumer Durable up by 0.36%, TECk up by 0.34% and Auto up by 0.30%. While, Oil & Gas down by 0.50%, Realty down by 0.44%, Metal down by 0.33% and PSU down by 0.09% were the only losers on the sectoral space.

The major gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 2.12%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.38%, BHEL up by 1.04%, HDFC up by 0.83% and Infosys up by 0.81%. On the other hand, GAIL India down by 1.93%, Reliance Industries down by 0.96%, TCS down by 0.94%, SBI down by 0.70% and Cipla down by 0.62% were the major losers on the Sensex.   

Meanwhile, as a respite for air travelers from Mumbai and New Delhi, the Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has directed Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) and Delhi International Airport (DIAL) to abolish airport development fee (ADF) at the two airports from January 1, 2013 and urged the state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) to infuse more equity in both the joint ventures to fill the financing gap.

At present, Delhi Airport charges ADF of Rs 200 per domestic and Rs 1,300 per international passenger, while Rs 100 and Rs 600 respectively at Mumbai. The directive came after the Aviation Ministry directed AAI not to levy ADF at Chennai and Kolkata Airports, which are being modernized now. While ADF is charged to meet cash flow requirements before completion of an airport upgrade project, UDF is been charged for using the completed facility.

After taking off the ADF, the financing gap for MIAL would be about Rs 4,200 crore, while DIAL will impact by about Rs 1,175 crore. However, the ministry had directed AAI to plug-in additional equity of approximately Rs 288 crore in MIAL and Rs 102 crore in DIAL, against its 26% in the equity of both the joint ventures.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,652.45, up by 4.45 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 5,684.35 and 5,633.90. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Lupin up by 2.64%, Tata Power up by 2.11%, Cairn India up by 1.93%, Ranbaxy Laboratories up by 1.70%, and PNB up by 1.50%. While, Ambuja Cement down by 2.82%, DLF down by 2.62%, GAIL down by 2.06%, ACC down by 1.16% and TCS down by 1.00% were top losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading mostly in the green; Kospi Composite advanced 0.70%, Shanghai Composite added 0.32%, Hang Seng spurted 0.99%, KLSE Composite rose 0.70%, Nikkei 225 surged 1.21%, Straits Times gained 0.12% and Jakarta Composite inched higher by 0.03%  while Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.09%, the sole loser amongst Asian pack.

The European markets were trading in green, France’s CAC 40 added 0.23%, Germany’s DAX ascended 0.09% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 jumped 0.14%.