Benchmarks lose further ground; broader indices stage mixed trend

Indian equity markets have further lost ground on account of negative European counterparts, which have added to the selling pressure. Losses of telecom stocks too seem to have rubbed-off some pessimism across D-street. Almost all telecom stocks, namely, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communication and MTNL, rang off on broil over CAG’s 2G report in the Parliament. Senior BJP leader and PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi on Friday hit back at the government and former CAG official RP Singh, who has suggested that the former had influenced the government auditor’s report on 2G spectrum allocation. However, investors also dumped local equities after storm over FDI paralyzed Parliament for second day. In the lackluster session of trade, Sensex, taking a hit of close to century of points, is trading close to 18,400 psychological level. Similarly, widely followed index, Nifty, on NSE, too plunging close to half a percent, was oscillating near the 5,600 bastion. Additionally, Midcap index too surrendered to the selling pressure, while Smallcap index managed to keep its head above the water. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which have outnumbered advances in the ratio of 1153: 1490, while 150 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,417.54, down by 99.80 points or 0.54% and has touched a high and a low of 18,556.50 and 18,402.49 respectively. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in the mix; the BSE Mid cap down by 0.13% and Small cap index up by 0.02% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were CD up by 0.22% and Auto up by 0.06% while, PSU down by 0.94%, Realty down by 0.93, Bankex down by 0.84%, FMCG down by 0.72% and Metal down by 0.61% were losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 1.27%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.99%, Sun Pharma up by 0.59%, Dr Reddy’s up by 0.57% and Coal India up by 0.47%.

On the flip side, Gail was down by 1.96%, Cipla was down by 1.88%, ITC was down by 1.56%,  NTPC was down by 1.44% and HDFC Bank was down by 1.35% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, with an objective to streamline the regulatory framework for pricing of drugs to ensure their availability at reasonable prices, Government of India has given approval for a new drug pricing policy- National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy. The move will curtail prices of costly brands sold by domestic and international drugmakers in a market that already has rock-bottom medicine prices, analysts and industry officials are skeptical about the benefits of the policy.

The policy aimed at bringing 348 essential drugs under price control, was earlier approved by the Group of Ministers (GoM) on September 27 and was subsequently sent to the Cabinet. According to industry experts, the new policy is expected to cover up to 30 percent of the total drugs sold in the country. At present, the government through the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) controls prices of 74 bulk drugs and their formulations. Earlier, GoM, headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar proposed to fix prices based on weighted average of brands which have more than 1 percent market share.

However, during last month, the Supreme Court had set a deadline of November 27 for the government to finalise the policy while asking it not to alter the existing mechanism of cost-based drug pricing. The government has also considered providing sufficient opportunity for innovation and competition to support the growth of the Indian pharma industry. The policy, however, took long to finalise due to differences between ministries of health and chemicals and fertilisers.  

The S&P Nifty is currently trading at 5,601.40 down by 26.35 points or 0.47% and has touched a high and a low of 5,637.75 and 5,594.65 respectively. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Asian Paint up by 1.74%, Power Grid up by 1.47%, BHEL up by 1.36%, HCL Tech up by 1.31% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.02%.

On the flip side, Ranbaxy down by 3.05%, Gail down by 2.12%, JP associate down by 2.06%, Cipla down by 1.87% and Grasim down by 1.65% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was up by 0.58%, Hang Seng gained 0.79%, Seoul Composite was up by 0.62% and Taiwan Weighted surged by 3.10%.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.19%, Straits Times down by 0.04%, KLSE Composite was down by 0.26% were the losers amongst Asian pack.

The European markets were trading in Red with, France’s CAC 40 down by 0.43%, Germany’s DAX down by 0.18% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 down by 0.07%.