Indian equities trim losses; Sensex below 20,000 mark

Indian equity markets trim losses but continued to trade in red in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline counters and taking cues from the subdued European counterparts. Traders were seen piling some position in Capital Goods, FMCG and IT sectors while selling was witnessed in Auto, Realty and Health Care sector. In the scrip specific movement, some selling pressure came in from Aviation sector as stocks like Kingfisher, Spicejet and Jet Airways edged lower after the Supreme Court ruled that air travellers should not pay transaction fee and that the aviation regulator should review the wide variation in air fares by airlines. HDIL was trading under pressure as partial stake sale by Vice Chairman and Managing Director Sarang Wadhawan concerned investors about the prospects of the company. Exide Industries was trading in red after Dutch banking and insurance group ING stated that it was selling its 26% stake in an Indian insurance venture to local partner Exide. Also, Citigroup downgraded the company to sell from buy and cuts its target price on the news. DLF was trading in green after foreign brokerage firm Goldman Sachs upgraded the company to buy from neutral, citing upcoming residential project launches worth Rs 13,000 crore over the next three quarters.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in red while the European markets were trading on a mixed note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 6,050 and 20,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 746:1948 while 123 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,999.88, down by 26.73 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 20,072.28 and 19,884.20. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The broader indices too succumbed to selling pressure; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading lower by 1.38% and 1.33% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.19%, FMCG up by 0.90%, IT up by 0.66%, Bankex up by 0.05% and TECk up 0.02%. While, Auto down by 2.54%, Realty down by 1.38%, Health Care down by 0.86%, Power down by 0.80% and PSU down by 0.65% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were L&T up by 2.26%, TCS up by 1.36%, ITC up by 1.28%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.24% and Wipro up by 1.20%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors was down by 6.06%, Cipla was down by 3.42%, Gail India was down by 3.18%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.70% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.65% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, assuring global investors that the country's growth story is intact, India's Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meet said ‘I can see that foreign companies are interested in participating in India's growth story. Foreign partners can be assured of investment with a policy regime that is investor friendly, growth-oriented, open and transparent.’

The six-day long WEF annual meet, which will see participation of many Indian business and political honchos as well as global leaders, began in Davos on January 22 and fiscal woes in the world economy are expected to dominate discussions. Sharma also noted that top CEOs of various companies, have appreciated the recent policy decisions regarding multi-brand retail, civil aviation and banking amendments.

The government recently liberalized foreign direct investment policy in sectors like retail allowing 51% FDI in multi-brand retail, hiking the cap to 100% in single-brand retail and permitting foreign airlines to buy 49% stake in Indian carriers. Moreover, the economy for the year 2011-12, recorded a growth of 6.5% and is expecting an economic expansion of 5.7% in the current fiscal. Despite the global economic woes, India has been registering decent growth.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,040.35, down by 13.95 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 6,065.30 and 6,007.85. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were L&T up by 2.29%, DLF up by 2.11%, TCS up by 1.45%, ONGC up by 1.37% and ITC up by 1.32%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 6.47%, Cipla down by 3.35%, GAIL India down by 3.21%, Ranbaxy Laboratories down by 2.82% and JP Associate down by 2.05% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite slipped 0.79%, Hang Seng dipped 0.15%, KOSPI Composite declined 0.80% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.62%. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 surged 1.28% and Straits Times was up by 0.45%. Stock markets in Indonesia and Malaysia remained close for the trade today.

The European markets were trading on a mixed note with; France’s CAC 40 lost 0.17%, Germany’s DAX dropped 0.25% while the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 edged higher by 0.11%.