Sensex, Nifty trading flat with positive bias

Indian equity markets erased most of its morning gains but still trading with positive bias in the late morning session on Monday. The NSE Nifty trading flat with only 7.50 points gain, while Sensex was up 37.69 points. Adjournment of parliamentary winter session also pushed the local markets further down. In currency markets, Indian rupee trading lower against American currency amid increasing dollar buying from oil companies. On sectoral front, metal, consumer durables, healthcare, information technology and FMCG stocks were among the notable gainers. Capital goods stocks were also finding fairly good support, while, PSU and bank stocks were mostly subdued amid lackluster moves by investors. In global markets, Asian shares were mixed without a discernable uptrend as investors were cautious ahead of the key Euro-zone ministers meeting while Japanese equities tested a 7-month high on the back of a weaker Yen. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,376 shares on the gaining side against 964 shares on the losing side while 127 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,544.26, up by 37.69 points or 0.20%, after touching a high and a low of 18,590.33 and 18,527.11 respectively. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose by 0.66% and 0.64% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD up by 1.21%, Metal up by 1.18%, HC up by 0.98%, TECk up by 0.92% and IT up by 0.73%. While, PSU down by 0.53% and Bankex down by 0.32% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sterlite Industries up by 3.12%, Tata Steel up by 2.15%, Hindalco up by 2.09%, Tata Motors up by 1.92%, and Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.88%.

On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 2.64%, NTPC was down by 1.25%, BHEL was down by 0.98%, HDFC Bank was down by 0.87% and Sun Pharma was down by 0.62% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, a CII-Ascon survey, tracking the growth of about 110 sectors, has stated that majority of units in the manufacturing sector are likely to register low to negative growth in the October-December quarter due to high interest rates and increasing prices. Sectors that are expecting low to negative growth include earth moving & construction equipment, machine tools, transformers, textile machinery, and tractors.

According to the survey, the percentage of negative growth reported by the sectors has increased to 56.4% during the quarter from 48.6% in the corresponding period last year, pointing the continuation of the slowdown as the positive results of the recent reform measures announced are yet to become effective. Those sectors reporting negative growth also moved up from 17.1 per cent to 20.8 per cent during the same period. However, the backdrop of a slew of economic reforms announced by the government has belied the expectation of a recovery in industrial performance.

Besides, consumer durables like passenger cars, two wheelers, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, TV, are among the sectors expecting low to negative growth. However, an appropriate action is expecting to be taken up from the RBI in the form of reduction in repo rate to ease the monetary situation, CII survey added.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,634.10, up by 7.50 points or 0.13%, after touching a high and a low of 5,649.20 and 5,628.45 respectively. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hindalco up by 2.22%, Sesa Goa up by 2.17%, Tata Motors up by 2.02%, Tata Steel up by 1.95% and Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.75%.

On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.63%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.64%, NTPC down by 1.25%, Ambuja Cement down by 1.11%, and BHEL down by 1.09%, were the major losers on the index.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Jakarta Composite was up by 0.15%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.24%, Straits Times gained 0.45%, and Taiwan Weighted surged by 1.11%.

On the other hand, Seoul Composite down 0.15%, Shanghai Composite was down 0.35%, Hang Seng down by 0.27% and KLSE Composite down by 0.14%.