Benchmarks trade flat in opening deal on Friday

Key benchmarks have made a flat to positive opening as sentiments got some support after Finance Minister said most state-run banks need an infusion of additional capital and a decision will be taken in the next few weeks. Further, FM urged RBI to start working on issuing final guidelines for granting licenses to new banks and receiving applications from the interested entities in anticipation of Banking Regulation Act (BRA) being amended. Moreover, Telecom operators Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular were up over 1 percent, extending gains after 2G spectrum auction.

However, gains remain capped as cues from global front remained unsupportive as US markets ended the session in the red on Thursday as investors remain concerned that economy could contract again if no deal is reached in Washington to avoid the ‘fiscal cliff’- automatic budget cuts and tax hikes that will begin to take effect in the new year. Moreover, Asian markets were trading mostly in the negative terrain at this point of time amid concerns about the looming US ‘fiscal cliff’.

Back home, on the sectoral front, capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by technology and oil and gas while, consumer durables, realty and healthcare remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were going neck-to-neck with benchmarks while, the overall market breadth has made a positive start; there were 973 shares on the gaining side against 614 shares on the losing side while 66 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18,491.49; about 20 points higher compared to its previous closing of 18,471.37, and has touched a high and a low of 18,531.99 and 18,490.81 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 18,512.88, up by 41.51 points or 0.22%. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 58.86% stocks advancing against 37.14% declines. The broader indices were trading in-line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 0.30% and 0.27% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CG up by 0.52%, TECk up by 0.46%, Oil and Gas up by 0.36%, IT up by 0.34% and FMCG up by 0.32%. While, CD down by 0.55%, Realty down by 0.14%, HC down by 0.12%, Auto down by 0.08% and Bankex down by 0.06% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 1.37%, ITC up by 1.10%, Infosys up by 1.02%, Jindal Steel up by 0.87% and ONGC up by 0.75%.

On the flip side, Cipla was down by 1.14%, Sterlite Indusrties was down by 0.81%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.64%, Sun Pharma was down by 0.59% and M&M was down by 0.40% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, realizing the difficulty of achieving a target of $360 billion exports, is planning to meet Finance Minister, P Chidambaram, seeking subsidy on loans for certain sectors to boost industrial production and exports. However, minister also expressed concerns over the contraction in the industrial production measured on IIP in September.

Discussions has been made on adding more sectors under the interest subvention (scheme), like all the SMEs have been given interest subvention of two percent. Though, exports are on decline since May and contracted by 1.63 percent last month, the trade deficit widened and rose to record $21 billion in October. Further, there has been decline in demand from the traditional markets of the US and Europe, Sharma added. He further said that the government is in constant touch with all stakeholders including the industry chambers.

Amid continuing decline in overseas shipments, the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) is reviewing performance of different aspects of the exporting sectors and is likely to complete the exercise in a couple of days. Merely after that, the government may come out with some support measures for the sector to arrest the decline.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,624.80; about 7 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,631.00 and has touched a high and a low of 5,642.20 and 5,624.80 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,632.25, up by 1.25 points or 0.02%. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 1.43%, Jindal Steel up by 1.20%, Infosys up by 0.80%, ITC up by 0.78% and Reliance Infra up by 0.69%.

On the flip side, Cipla down by 1.39%, Cairn down by 1.02%, HDFC down by 0.89%, DLF down by 0.79% and Lupin down by 0.77%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite contracted 18.03 points or 0.89% to 2,012.26, Taiwan Weighted declined 9.88 points or 0.14% to 7133.96, KOSPI Composite dropped by 4.11 points or 0.22% to1866.61 and KLSE Composite was down by 4.97 points or 0.30% to 1,626.71.

On the flip side, Hang Seng rose 84.83 points or 0.40% to 21,193.76, Nikkei 225 increased 166.19 points or 1.88% to 8,995.91 and Straits Times was up by 1.35 points or 0.05% to 2,947.27.   

Jakarta Composite remained closed for the trade today.