Trade remains range-bound lacking any direction to move

The trade for Indian markets continues to remain range bound in the last leg of the session, traders are proffering to remain on sidelines ahead of an all party meet on FDI. The government, reluctant to face a vote on the issue of Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail, has called a meeting of all political parties to find a way to make Parliament work. While the government is avoiding the vote on the issue, the opposition along with some of its own allies are not in favour of the FDI in multi-brand retail and had been regularly voicing their concerns. Meanwhile, on the street, consumer durables and metal pack has taken the lead. There was buzz in the aviation sector where stake sale reports have given a huge push to the major airline companies, on the same time PSU sector was ailing since morning as Hindustan Copper shares plunged 20% to hit its lower circuit limit for the second consecutive day after the government sold 5.58% of its stake in the company at an average price of Rs 156.56 apiece, much lower than its market price.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,547.63, up by 41.06 points or 0.22% and has touched a high and a low of 18,590.33 and 18,508.79 respectively. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The broader indices continue to outperform the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap surged by 1.07%, while Small cap index was up by 0.98% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were CD up by 2.12%, Metal up by 1.42%, TECk up by 1.15%, IT up by 1% and Realty too was up by 1%, while PSU down by 0.41%, Bankex down by 0.22% and Oil & Gas down by 0.13% were losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sterlite Inds up by 3.17%, Tata Steel up by 2.44%, Hindalco Inds up by 2.13%, Wipro up by 1.91% and Dr Reddy’s was up by 1.45%.

On the flip side, M&M down by 2.22%, BHEL down by 1.18%, HDFC Bank down by 1.08%, Sun Pharma down by 0.77% and HDFC down by 0.64% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, ahead of the release of GDP figures for second quarter on November 30, by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), the Finance Minister P Chidambaram has indicated that growth of the economy slowed to 5.5 percent in July-September quarter of the current fiscal from 6.9 percent during the same period last year.

The growth remained 5.5 percent in first quarter too and the FM stated that 'When our growth declined to 5.5 percent in the first quarter of this financial year, and when growth is likely to be around 5.5 percent in the second quarter of this financial year, it goes without saying that we face a difficult situation.'

Lots of international and local agencies have scaled down the growth target of the Indian GDP; even the Reserve Bank has scaled down India's economic growth prospects for the fiscal to 5.8 percent from 6.5 percent. Chidambaram has called upon the banks to play an active role in reviving the economy and has said that there is a need to find innovative ways to increase output of goods and services to overcome the difficult economic situation.

However, regarding fiscal deficit he said that the government would stick to the borrowing programme announced in the Union Budget for the current financial year and will remain in the limit of the budgeted Rs 5.7 lakh crore for the entire financial year.

The S&P Nifty is currently trading at 5,635.60, up by 9.00 points or 0.16% and has touched a high and a low of 5,649.20 and 5,623.45 respectively. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were IDFC up by 2.73%, Hindalco up by 2.36%, Sesa Goa up by 2.32%, Tata Steel up by 2.26% and Wipro up by 1.81%.

On the other hand, M&M down by 2.20%, UltraTech Cement down by 1.59%, BHEL down by 1.42%, HDFC Bank down by 1.25% and BPCL down by 1.23% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices made a mixed closing on Monday; Shanghai Composite was down by 0.49%, Hang Seng lost 0.24%, KLSE Composite was down by 0.40% and Seoul Composite ended lower by 0.15%

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite gained 0.61%, Straits Times was up by 0.54% Nikkei 225 gained 0.24% and Taiwan Weighted surged by 1.11%.

The European markets were trading mostly in red with, France’s CAC 40 down by 0.55%, Germany’s DAX down by 0.11% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 down by 0.20%.