Domestic bourses make muted start on profit booking

Indian benchmarks have made a flat-to-negative start as investors preferred to book profits after previous session’s gains. Mixed trend in the Asian markets following overnight losses at the European markets, too influenced the domestic sentiment. Asian shares were trading in a mixed range as China’s official manufacturing PMI, while confirming a trend towards recovering growth, failed to convince investors that the slowdown was bottoming out. Moreover, the US markets made a mixed closing as trading resumed after being shut for two days by Superstorm Sandy. Back home, the sentiments also remain dampened after index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) declined by over a percentage point after anti-corruption activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal on October 31, 2012, charged Reliance Industries (RIL) and its chairman Mukesh Ambani with getting undue favours from the government over a contract to develop natural gas fields. However, the losses remain capped on news that the eight core industries surged to an annual 5.1% in September, faster than the upwardly revised 2.3% in August and 2.5% in September, 2011. Moreover, shares of Auto companies also edged higher ahead of monthly sales numbers for the month of October.

On the sectoral front, consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by auto and realty while, fast moving consumer goods and oil and gas remained the only losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 980 shares on the gaining side against 579 shares on the losing side while 82 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18,487.90; about 18 points lower compared to its previous closing of 18,505.38, and has touched a high and a low of 18,502.75 and 18,450.51 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 18,497.18, down by 8.20 points or 0.04%. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 35.28% stocks advancing against 59.72% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.47% and 0.37% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD up by 2.55%, Auto up by 1.10%, Realty up by 1.05%, Power up by 0.68% and CG up by 0.53%. While, FMCG down by 0.97% and Oil and Gas down by 0.84% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motor up by 3.08%, Wipro up by 3.06%, Cipla up by 1.49%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.24% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.93%.

On the flip side, HUL was down by 2.44%, RIL was down by 1.21%, ITC was down by 0.99%, Sun Pharma was down by 0.61% and Jindal Steel was down by 0.61% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, disappointing the tactical measures taken by the government to garner more foreign investments for triggering financial health of the nation, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has reported that the foreign direct investment (FDI) in India has dipped by 20% to $2.26 billion in the month of August with respect to same month last year’s $2.83 billion worth foreign inflows, while in July month foreign investments were about 60%.

However, the centre has expressed hopes that relaxation of investment caps in FDI in multi- brand retail and civil aviation would aid in garnering more investments to the country in the coming months. It also affirmed the significance of foreign investments as India needs fund above $1 trillion over the next five years for its infrastructure developments in sector like ports, airports and highways.

The pummeled foreign inflows are likely to weigh on the country's balance of payments (BoP) and could also impact on rupee. The major shares of FDI inflows in the month has reached the sectors like services with $2.28 billion, automobile about $617 million, for construction $601 million and metallurgical by about $595 million.

The major contributors to FDI in India are Mauritius with $2.53 billion, Japan with $1.16 billion, the Netherlands with $923 million, the UK with $570 million and Singapore with $961 million. While the foreign inflows for the financial year in 2011-12 was about $36.50 billion, with respect to 2010-11’s $19.42 billion and 2009-10’s $25.83 billion.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,609.85; about 10 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,619.70, and has touched a high and a low of 5,618.70 and 5,603.45 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,615.80, up by 3.90 points or 0.07%. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Wipro up by 3.02%, Tata Motors up by 2.94%, Power Grid up by 2.28%, RInfra up by 2.01% and Cipla up by 1.54%.

On the flip side, HUL down by 2.27%, RIL down by 1.30%, ITC down by 0.88%, Jindal Steel down by 0.86% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.76%, were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite surged by 36.72 points or 1.77% to 2,105.60, Hang Seng was up by 121.80 points or 0.56% to 21,763.62, Nikkei 225 gained 41.71 points or 0.47% to 8,961.46 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 9.07 points or 0.13% to 7,175.12.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite lost 28.64 points or 0.70% to 4,320.41, KLSE Composite declined marginally by 1.79 points or 0.10% to 1,671.45, Straits Times was down by 8.44 points or 0.28% to 3,029.07 and Kospi Composite was lower by 14.39 points or 0.74% to 1,897.20.