Benchmarks extend losses; IT, Metal drags

After making lackluster start, Indian equities continued to trade weak in the late morning session despite the lower inflation number. Most of the Asian stocks were trading in the red as investors reacted to the prospect of drawn-out negotiations over the looming US ‘fiscal cliff’ by shedding riskier assets. Back home, traders were seen piling up position in CD sector while selling was witnessed in IT, Metal and Auto sector. Titan Industries, Videocon Industries, Rajesh Exports and TTK Prestige, from CD pack were seen trading in green. However Metal stocks - Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, Hindalco Industries, Sterlite Industries (India), JSW Steel and NMDC were capping the markets’ gains. IT majors Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Oracle Financial Services Software and Financial Technologies (India) were pressurizing the markets. In the scrip specific development, Dion Global jumped on developing interface with Cofunds. McNally Bharat gained on bagging two orders worth Rs 90.88 crore. SREI Infrastructure soared on getting nod for establishing White Label ATMs.  Wockhardt zoomed on reporting over six-fold jump in Q2 net profit. Ramky Infrastructure surged on achieving financial tie-up for Hospet-Chitradurga project.

The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5,600 and 18400 levels. The market breadth on BSE was negative, advances: declines in the ratio of 844:1289.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18465.78 down by 153.09 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 18593.54 and 18439.06. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.50% and Small cap index was down by 0.41%.

Amongst the sectoral indices on the BSE, CD up by 0.59% was the lone gainer while, IT down by 1.73, Metal down by 1.41% Auto down by 1.16%, FMCG down by 1.00% and TECk down by 0.89% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.71%, GAIL up by 2.18%, L&T up by 0.61%, HDFC up by 0.56% and HUL up by 0.40%.

On the flip side, Sun Pharma was down by 2.44%, Infosys was down by 2.22%, Tata Steel was down by 1.94%, Wipro was down by 1.94% and Tata Motors was down by 1.91% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Mean while, Reacting to the dismal Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for September 2012, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has asked the government to ease monetary policies to push growth.

R V Kanoria, President, FICCI said ‘the negative IIP figure for September 2012 is indeed disturbing as it indicates that manufacturing growth had not bottomed out in previous month and both domestic and export demand continue to remain an area of concern for us.’

‘At this juncture, it is important that government does not lose momentum on reform front and need to take courage now to implement some big ticket reforms like implementation of GST, effective and time-bound coordination mechanism for project clearance envisaged in NIB, introducing competition in coal sector and introducing targeted delivery mechanism for existing development schemes to check the subsidy burden,’ emphasized Kanoria.

The federation has further said that capital goods remain a cause for concern as the growth of this sector has fallen steeply in September and also figures for August have undergone for downward revision thereby reflecting a continued environment of subdued investment activity. FICCI also hopes that RBI will relook at its monetary policy in the light of latest IIP figures to reduce interest rates.

Earlier, FICCI in its latest quarterly survey on manufacturing had projected subdued growth in key sectors such as automotive, capital goods, metal and chemicals in the third quarter. 

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,619.15, down by 47.80 points or 0.84% after trading in a range of 5,651.65 and 5,615.40. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.51%, Gail up by 2.39%, Kotak Bank up by 1.34%, HCL Tech up by 1.07% and Cairn up by 0.95%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 4.97%, Sun Pharma down by 2.40%, Infosys down by 2.32%, Tata Steel down by 2.31% and JP Associates down by 2.15%, were the major losers on the index

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Kospi Composite down by 1.20%, Straits Times down by 0.77%, KLSE Composite down by 0.36%,Taiwan Weighted  down by 0.14%, Shanghai Composite was  down by 0.58% and Hang Seng  down  by 0.58% while Nikkei 225 up by 1.75% was only  lone  gainer. Jakarta Composite remained closed.