Benchmarks trim losses; European markets opening eyed

The benchmark equity indices have now trimmed their losses, helped by Auto and Fast Moving Consumer Goods stocks. Selective buying by funds and retail investors, on expectation of higher opening of European counterparts, mainly has triggered some recovery at D-street. In range-bound session of trade, 30 share index, Sensex, trading with minute losses, is currently trading sub psychological 18300 level. Similarly, widely followed index, Nifty, on NSE, too oscillating around neutral line, is trading sub 5600 crucial level. Additionally, broader indices too have trimmed losses, albeit in smaller proportion.

On the global front, European stock index futures are pointing to a sharply higher opening on Monday, with stocks poised to mirror gains on Wall Street and in Asia on hopes of a deal in Washington to avoid a damaging 'fiscal cliff'. Meanwhile, Asian shares continue to stage mixed trend, however, the downside remains limited on hopes that US politicians can overcome an imminent fiscal crunch and also on expectation that a new government chosen in next month’s election could pump large amounts of stimulus cash into the economy.

Closer home, some amount of caution is also witnessed ahead winter parliament session, which will begin on November 22, 2012. While, stocks from Metal, Consumer Durable (CD) and Capital Goods (CG) counters emerging as the notable losers on BSE sectoral front, have mainly led to the downside of the bourses. Adding to the pessimistic milieu, two PSU OMCs, HPCL, and Indian Oil Corporation lost out on steam after the oil ministry said that under-recovery on High Speed Diesel applicable for 2nd fortnight of November effective 16 November 2012 remains high. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which have thumped advances in the ratio of 1609:927, while 108 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18298.45, down by 10.92 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 18386.78 and 18269.56. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The broader indices have trimmed some losses; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading lower by 0.68% and 0.57% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Auto up by 0.99 % and FMCG up by 0.21%. While, Metal down by 0.72%, CD down by 0.64 %, HC down by 0.62% CG down by 0.60 % and IT down by 0.51% were top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.94 %, Bharti Airtel up by 2.92%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.46%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.31% and ITC up by 1.27%.

On the flip side, Tata power down by 2.02%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.29%, Sterlite Industry down by 1.13%, TCS down by 1.12%, and Tata steel down by 1.09% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, according to Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), if overseas investment is permitted, India’s organized retail industry is expected to become a $1.3 trillion opportunity by 2020, led by an estimated 25% average annual growth. With the current market size estimated at $500 billion, this translates to an additional $800 billion in the next eight years, R V Kanoria, President of FICCI said.

The central government recently took a decision to allow up to 51 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and to raise the limit for overseas investment in single-brand retail to 100 percent. Further, country's traditional retail industry is expected a growth at an average annual rate of five percent over the next year, since almost 94 percent of India's retail industry is under unorganized or traditional whereas, the organized retail is expected to clock-in a growth rate of almost 25% in this period.

Further, to gauge the immediate concerns of the industry, FICCI organized an interactive meeting with different stakeholders of retail industry like representatives of small Kirana stores, farmers and consumers and suggested that FDI would help improve back-end infrastructure and reduce wastage, especially of fruits and vegetables.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,564.60, down by 9.45 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 5,592.75 and 5,552.25. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Maruti up by 4.22%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.85%, M&M up by 1.53%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.37%, and ITC up by 1.24%.

On the other hand, Lupin down by 2.64%, Ambuja Cements down by 2.34%, Tata power down by 2.02%, IDFC down by 1.66% and Axis Bank down by 1.35%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian indices were in Green; Hang Seng up by 0.32%, Straits Times was up by 0.24%, Kospi Composite up by 0.93%, Nikkei 225 surged 1.43% were gainers. On the flip side Shanghai Composite declined 0.11%, KLSE Composite down by 0.34%, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.01%, Jakarta Composite down by 0.71% were the losers amongst Asian pack.