Indian equities trade near neutral line; Auto, IT drags

Indian benchmarks, snapping the two-days rising trend, are trading near the neutral line in the late morning session as funds and retail investors booked profits amid a weak trend in the Asian region. The global cues remained sluggish after World Bank sharply cut its 2013 outlook for the world economy to 2.4 per cent from its last forecast in June of 3 per cent. The traders were seen piling up position in Oil & Gas, Healthcare and Consumer Durables while selling was seen in Auto, IT and TECk sectors. In scrip specific development, Ranbaxy Laboratories soared after reporting that the company and Daiichi Sankyo have decided to integrate their business operations in Thailand. Development Credit Bank surged on reporting net profit jumped 72.1% to Rs 26.91 crore on 23.5% growth in total income to Rs 258.33 crore in Q3 December 2012 over Q3 December 2011. Orient Refractories was trading in green after reporting that the Dutch firm Dutch US Holding B.V. made an open offer to acquire additional 26% stake in the company at price of Rs 43 per share. Tata Motors was trading under pressure after global sales declined 13.88% to 98,968 units in December 2012 over December 2011. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 6,000 and 19500 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was positive; advances: declines in the ratio of1090:1000.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19986.81 down by 0.01 points after trading in a range of 20009.36 and 19950.13. 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 0.19% and Small cap index was up by 0.22%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.03%, Healthcare up by 0.69%, Consumer Durables up by 0.61%, Realty up by 0.34% and Power up by 0.13%. While, Auto down by 0.61%, IT down by 0.49%, TECk down by 0.41%, and Bankex down by 0.37% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were RIL up by 2.25%, Dr Reddy’s Lab up by 1.93%, Sterlite Industries up by 1.89%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.64% and Gail India up by 0.99%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors was down by 1.78%, Jindal Steel was down by 1.41%,  Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.26%, TCS was down by 1.07% and Infosys was down by 0.78% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in line with firming raw material cost, petrol price was hiked by about 35 paise per litre. As per the revision, petrol will now cost Rs 67.56 per litre in Delhi with effect from midnight January 15. The petrol prices was cut twice in October and November - first by 56 paise and then by 95 paise per litre.

Petrol prices vary from city to city due to differential local sales tax or VAT rates. This is the first revision in rates of petrol, which was deregulated by the government, since November.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,052.60 down by 4.00 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 6,055.95 and 6,038.30. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Reliance up by 2.18%, HCL Tech up by 2.01%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.76%, Siemens up by 1.73% and Ranbaxy up by 1.71%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.99%, Jindal Steel down by 1.49%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.37%, JP Associate down by 1.30% and TCS down by 1.27% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite declined 10.21 points or 0.44% to 2,315.47, Hang Seng slipped 48.51 points or 0.21% to 23,333.00, Jakarta Composite dipped 4.84 points or 0.11% to 4,395.98, KLSE Composite contracted 4.84 points or 0.29% to 1,681.05, Nikkei 225 tumbled 198.89 points or 1.83% to 10,680.85 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 45.73 points or 0.59% to 7,719.29.

On the flip side, Straits Times increased 10.77 points or 0.34% to 3,206.60 and KOSPI Composite was up by 0.41 points or 0.02% to 3,206.96.