Indian equities continue volatile trade; eyeing on inflation numbers

Indian equities continued volatile trade in the late morning session in absence of any triggers. Traders are eyeing on important event of inflation numbers, scheduled to be announced later in the day. On the global front most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green at this point of time as investors were encouraged with advancement in Japanese Exporters after yen fell to an eight months low. Back home, the traders were seen piling up position in Realty, Auto and CG, while selling was seen in CD, FMGC and Power sector. Realty stocks outperformed the broader markets after the Cabinet clearance of Land Acquisition Bill. Construction shares such as Hindustan Construction Company, Gammon India, IVRCL, Valecha Engineering, Unity Infra, IRB Infrastructure Developers, L&T and Jaiprakash Associates edged higher after the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure stated that simplification of procedure were done in order to make the award process of road construction projects faster. Fertiliser stocks such as Chambal Fertiliser, Deepak Fertilizer, Rashtriya Chemicals and Coromandel zoomed after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a urea investment policy, which is likely to incentivise fertilizer companies to set up new plants and expand existing capacity. Telecom stocks such as Reliance Communications, Idea Celluar too were trading in green after the Union Cabinet announced reduction of the reserve price for auction of spectrum in 1,800 MHz band in the service areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka and Rajasthan by 30% from the previous reserve price. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5,850 and 19200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, in the ratio of 1103:1032.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19241.38 up by 12.12 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 19263.63 and 19193.11. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.35% and Small cap index was up by 0.07%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.12%, Auto up by 0.75%, CG up by 0.50%, IT up by 0.42% and Metal up by 0.33%. On the other hand, CD down by 0.64%, FMGC down by 0.48, Power down by 0.38%, and PSU down by 0.25% were the top losers on the Sensex.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.84%, L&T up by 1.02%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.93%, Jindal Steel up by 0.89%, RIL up by 0.80%.

On the flip side, ITC was down by 1.19%, Bharti Airtel was down by 0.98%,  ITC was down by 0.86%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.81%, and HDFC was down by 0.73% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has announced that the government has decided to shift 34 identified central sector and centrally sponsored schemes to aadhaar-enabled direct benefit transfer of funds in a phased manner.

Further, finance minister said that the new system, which is going to be introduced, is more transparent. It will eliminate leakages, delays, duplicities and falsification and this will introduce a very high degree of efficiency and transparency. He added that the scheme is not devised in a hurry and will be implemented step by step, starting with 43 districts from January 1, 2013.

The scheme will include post-matric and pre-matric scholarships for Scheduled Caste students; pre-matric scholarships for children of those engaged in unclean occupations; merit upgradation for SC students; the national overseas scholarship schemes for SCs; post-matric scholarships for OBCs; national overseas scholarships for OBCs; post-matric scholarships for economically backward class students and for students with disabilities; scholarships for top-class education for students with disabilities; and top-class education schemes and scholarships to universities and college students. Also, including fellowship schemes of the UGC and AICTE, subsidies on fees to students, national means-cum-merit scholarships etc.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,850.75 down by 0.75 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 5,861.60 and 5,839.15. There were 26 stocks advancing against 23 declines while 1 stock remains   unchanged on the index. The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 1.74%, Kotak Bank up by 1.06%, DLF up by 1.00%, L&T up by 0.98%, and Ultra Cement up by 0.93%.

On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.65%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.42%, Hero Moto down by 1.13% ITC down by 1.02%, and Ambuja Cement down by 0.99%, were the top losers on the index.

Asian markets were trading mixed; KLSE Composite was down by 3.66 points or 0.22% to 1,649.09, Jakarta Composite was down by 28.49 points or 0.66% to 4,291.69, Seoul Composite was down by 4.56 points or 0.23% to 1,998.48, and Taiwan Weighted was trading down by 61.83points or 0.80% to 7,695.34.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite was up by 59.36 points or 2.88% to 2,120.84, Straits Times was up by 6.89 points or 0.22% to 3,161.31, Hang Seng gained 176.53 points or 0.79% to 22,622.11 and Nikkei 225 up by 22.58 points or 0.23% to 9,764.83.