Domestic bourses trade flat ahead of Gujarat election outcome

Indian benchmarks have made a soft-to-cautious start as investors preferred to book profits after two sessions of gains ahead of the outcome of the Gujarat elections later today. Besides, a subdued trend on global bourses too dampened the sentiments as US stocks fell overnight, ending near their session’s low as the fiscal cliff worries resurfaced after the talks to avert a year-end fiscal crisis turned sour. President Obama was highly critical of Boehner’s proposed ‘Plan B’ legislation, which would extend tax cuts for people making up to $1 million. Asian shares paused on Thursday after rallying to their highest in nearly 17 months the day before, as talks to avert a US fiscal crisis stalled - prompting worries of the world’s largest economy sliding back into recession.

Back home, stock market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on December 19, 2012, raised the base minimum capital (BMC) for stock brokers holding registration as stock-broker in the cash segment. SEBI has also introduced BMC for members holding registration as trading member in any derivative segment. Meanwhile, traders were getting some support with government’s stand of stable tax regime and stating that it was banking on better compliance to boost revenues. On the sectoral front, healthcare witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by software and technology while, realty, banking and oil and gas remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 850 shares on the gaining side against 794 shares on the losing side while 54 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,511.41; about 35 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19,476.00, and has touched a high and a low of 19,520.51 and 19,408.02 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19,460.46, down by 15.54 points or 0.08%. There were 16 stocks advancing against 13 declines and one remains unchanged on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 50.06% stocks advancing against 46.76% declines. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.11% and 0.07% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Healthcare up by 1.02%, IT up by 0.45%, TECk up by 0.28%, Auto up by 0.13% and CD up by 0.02%. While, Realty down by 0.63%, Bankex down by 0.37%, Oil & Gas down by 0.30%, Power down by 0.28% and Metal down by 0.27% were the few losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 2.27%, Sun Pharma up by 1.52%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.21%, Coal India up by 0.83% and Tata Power up by 0.70%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.23%, Sterlite Industries was down by 1.17%, BHEL was down by 1.11%, ITC was down by 0.76% and HDFC Bank was down by 0.71% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, with the government firmly committed to the reforms agenda, it is expected that the government will soon announce incentives for exporters to cushion the decline in exports due to contracting demand from abroad. While addressing the 2nd India-Asean Business Fair and Business Conclave, on the sidelines Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said ‘we have had intense scrutiny, and we have looked at the sectors that are weak, also the regions in the world where the demand has contracted ... and whatever possible, given the constraint of resources, we are seriously considering (incentives). We shall take a final view very shortly.’

As per the minister, there are two reasons for concerns, first the contraction of demand in some of the major markets globally, as a result of which exports have fallen and have impacted the industrial productivity and second the trade account deficit. He added that the commerce ministry is doing everything to push the exports and to keep the trade account deficit within manageable limits. By adding further he said additional sectors may be brought under the interest subvention scheme of 2 per cent for exporters.

In April-November period of this year, exports registered a fall of 5 per cent to $189.2 billion and trade deficit rose to $129.5 billion from $122.6 billion reported in the same period of last financial year. Till now, Indian’s trade data of current fiscal has dashed the optimism of the commerce department that the trade deficit would be lower in this financial year against the $185 billion in previous fiscal.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,934.45; about 5 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,929.60, and has touched a high and a low of 5,937.60 and 5,908.45 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,923.20, down by 6.40 points or 0.11%. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Cipla up by 2.06%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.23%, Sun Pharma up by 1.13%, Ranbaxy up by 0.92% and Coal India up by 0.81%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.25%, Sesa Goa down by 1.11%, IDFC down by 0.93%, Hindalco down by 0.89% and Ambuja Cement down by 0.83%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 11.21 points or 0.52% to 2,151.03, Hang Seng contracted 74.17 points or 0.33% to 22,549.20, Jakarta Composite tumbled 42.11 points or 0.98% to 4,233.74, KLSE Composite slipped 2.41 points or 0.14% to 1,663.23, Nikkei 225 dropped 62.33 points or 0.61% to 10,098.07 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 68.23 points or 0.89% to 7,609.24.

On the flip side, Straits Times was up 1.08 points or 0.03% to 3,159.65 and KOSPI Composite surged 4.88 points or 0.24% to 1,997.97.