Benchmarks pare gains; trade continues marginally in green

Indian equities pared gains but continued firm trade in green in the late morning session. Meanwhile, the global cues remained supportive as Asian markets were trading mostly in the green terrain. Japanese market was trading higher on hopes of more stimulus, as the country’s industrial production fell more than forecast. Back home, traders were seen piling up position in, Bankex, Realty and Teck sector while selling was witnessed in CD, CG and Auto sector. Infosys, TCS, Bharti Airtel and HCL Technologies from Teck pack were seen trading in green. CD majors - Titan Industries, Videocon Industries, Rajesh Exports, and TTK Prestige were capping the markets’ gains. Auto majors Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto and Maruti Suzuki too were pressurizing the markets. 

Meanwhile, Banking sector and realty sector plunged in red after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in second quarter review of monetary policy 2012-13, left its key policy rates, viz. repo and reverse repo, unchanged at 8 per cent and 7 per cent respectively. However, the apex bank, in a much anticipated move, slashed cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks by 25 basis points from 4.50 per cent to 4.25 per cent, which would inject Rs 17,500 crore of primary liquidity into the banking system. Meanwhile, the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate also stand unchanged at 9.0 per cent.

In the scrip specific development, Colgate Palmolive gained on reporting 46% rise in Q2 net profit.  Oracle rose on receiving SWIFTReady Payments Label 2012 for Oracle FLEXCUBE. Tantia Constructions jumped on bagging order worth Rs 38.17 crore from IRCON. Fortis Healthcare surged on plans to add 950 beds by March 2013.The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5,650 and 18600 levels.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, in the ratio of 1078:878.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18659.60 up by 23.78 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 18685.16 and 18614.67. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.26% and Small cap index was up by 0.29%.

On the BSE sectoral space, Bankex up by 0.83%, Realty up by 0.76%, Teck up by 0.54%, IT up by 0.47%, and HC up by 0.16% were the top gainers. While, CD down by 0.94%, CG down by 0.51%, Auto down by 0.38%, Oil &Gas down by 0.28% and Power down by 0.19% were the top losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 1.35%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.17%, SBI up by 1.13%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 0.91% and Infosys up by 0.89%. On the other hand, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.19%, BHEL down by 0.99%, Tata Motors down by 0.92%, Sun Pharma down by 0.71% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.63% were the top losers on the Sensex.   

Meanwhile, In the absence of consensus among the various Government agencies for dealing with the issue of spectrum re-farming, the DoT (Department Of Telecom) has sought the views of Telecom regulator, TRAI on whether incumbent operators should be allowed to retain any part of spectrum at the time of re-farming and licence renewal at the end of the 20-year licence period. An Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on October 18 had deferred a decision on this contentious spectrum re-farming issue.

Re-farming involves redistribution of the highly efficient airwaves in the 900 MHz band, largely held by incumbents such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, and substituting them with frequencies in the 1,800 MHz frequency, when the permits of these companies come up for renewal beginning 2014. The move is to seek clarity on re-farming comes as Planning Committee Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia last week cautioned the government on executing this controversial proposal, and urged the government to study the full implications as well as seek guidance from telecom regulator TRAI before endorsing the move to take back all spectrum held by incumbents in the 900 MHz band.

However, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) has raised concerns about this approach to permit operators to retain any part of the spectrum. On the other hand, TRAI, in 2010, had said that operators be allowed to retain up to 10 MHz of spectrum at the time of renewal. This was approved by the Government and was announced this year in February.

Moreover, the DoT has now sought TRAI’s view on specific points, including the feasibility and desirability of various re-farming options and the TRAI has been told to give full analysis of the various options before the next meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,672.45, up by 6.85 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 5,678.95 and 5,655.90. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were PNB up by 1.43%, ICICI Bank up by 1.34%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.33%, Bank Baroda up by 1.30% and SBI was up by 1.24%. While, Hero Moto Co down by 1.34%, Tata Motors down by 1.15%, Sun Pharma down by 0.89%, ACC  down by 0.84% and Grasim down by 0.82% were the losers on the index

Asian equity indices were trading mostly in the green; Taiwan Weighted up by 1.05%, Kospi Composite was up by 0.60%, Shanghai Composite was up by 0.30%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.16%, Straits Times was up by 0.31%, Nikkei 225 was up by 0.52% and KLSE Composite up by 0.14% while Hang Seng was down by 0.39% was the lone loser.