Benchmarks gyrate around neutral line

The Indian equity markets are gyrating around their neutral line in the late morning session. On the global front, most of the Asian counters were trading in the red. However, and Chinese benchmark gained ground after manufacturing data showed that sector extending its recovery. Back home, the traders were seen piling up position in Realty, Metal and Auto while selling was seen in FMCG, IT and TECk sector. Wipro gained after the company has stated that the shareholders have approved its demerger plan after a meeting on Friday. Shriram Transport Finance Company  surged on report  that the Piramal Group is in advanced talks to buy US private equity firm TPG Capital's 20.27% stake in Shriram Transport Finance Company for around Rs 3500 crore. Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company gained after the company has stated that it has received a contract worth about Rs 400 crore from ONGC.  Chettinad Cement Corporation jumped after the company's board approved delisting its shares from stock exchanges. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5,900 and 19400 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, in the ratio of 1293:786.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19450.42 up by 5.58 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 19491.58 and 19422.59. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.22% and Small cap index was up by 0.50%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.54%, Metal up by 0.68%, Auto up by 0.56%, Consumer Durables up by 0.49% and PSU up by 0.37%. While, FMCG down by 0.17%, IT down by 0.17%, TECk down by 0.05% and HC down by 0.03% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco Industries up by 1.24%, Wipro up by 1.06%, Sterlite Industries up by 0.90%, Jindal Steel up by 0.84%, and Hero Moto Corp up by 0.76%.

On the flip side, ITC was down by 1.04%, Infosys was down by 0.60%, TCS was down by 0.57%, Coal India was down by 0.45%, HDFC was down by 0.31%, and were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, corporate affairs minister Sachin Pilot, concerned with growing number of financial frauds has announced the setting up of a new intelligence unit that will delve into data mining from all possible sources to detect any wrongdoings by the companies and their promoters at the earliest possible stage.

The work of Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) will be supplemented by the new division which is primarily aimed to spot early warnings by analyzing the vast amount of electronic data available with the ministry. “The idea is to have a set of people to do the data mining, collection and checking of records that is available on various platforms, and link them with the inputs from investigating agencies”, Pilot said.

Further, Pilot said that SFIO should be brought into picture only when there is a larger public interest involved or when something is going to have far reaching implications. The new Companies Bill contains special provisions for fraud and grants statutory status to SFIO, which is expected to curb wrongdoings in the corporate world.

Moreover, experts also agree that investigations into a number of corporate frauds, including the high-profile Satyam scam, in the past have shown that many of them could have been detected at an earlier stage by a stronger oversight mechanism. 

 The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,908.00 down by 0.35 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 5,919.00 and 5,898.80. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 3.11%, Punjab National Bank up by 2.68%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.39%, Reliance Infrastructure up by 1.02% and Jindal Steel up by 0.92%.

On the flip side, TCS down by 0.79%, ITC down by 0.79%, IDFC down by 0.58%, Ultra Cement down by 0.54% and Infosys down by 0.52%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng dipped 9.67 points or 0.04% to 22,656.92, KLSE Composite declined 4.87points or 0.29% to 1,676.46 and Straits Times was down by 23.72 points or 0.77% to 3,167.08.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 25.08 points or 1.12% to 2,258.33.

Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan markets remained closed for trade today on the account of public holiday.