Benchmarks continue lackluster trade in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continue to witness lackluster trade in the noon trade on the back of profit booking visible in the most of the sectors at higher levels. Investors remained sidelines ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) third-quarter monetary policy review on January 29. Some cautiousness also came in from currency markets as Indian rupee depreciated by 21 paise to 53.88 against the dollar in early noon trade on the Interbank Foreign Exchange on fresh demand for the US currency.

However, global cues remained supportive as most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green at this point of time after a corporate-results-driven rally on Wall Street. Moreover, Chinese Shanghai Composite surged by about two and a half percent amid a relatively positive earnings outlook, even as data released on January 27, 2013 showed profit at major Chinese industrial enterprises grew by only 5.3 percent in 2012, nearly one-fifth of the 25.4 percent jump seen the previous year. However, South Korean KOSPI fell half a percent, after closing on Friday at an eight-week low, weighed by caution ahead of fourth-quarter earnings and a stronger won hitting exporters amid the rising geopolitical risk.

Back home, losses remained capped as buying in rate sensitive stocks such as automobiles and realty supporting the frontline indices up to certain extent. Realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by auto and software while, oil and gas, power and consumer durables remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks while, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,342 shares on the gaining side against 1,147 shares on the losing side while 123 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20,088.31 down by 15.22 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 20172.45 and 20062.79. There were 14 stocks advancing against 15 declines while one stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.03% and Small cap index was up by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.07%, Auto up by 1.04%, IT up by 0.58%, TECk up by 0.35% and Bankex up by 0.27%. While, Oil & Gas down by 0.98%, Power down by 0.57%, Consumer Durables down by 0.51%, PSU down 0.46% and Capital Goods down by 0.42% were the losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 1.76%, Sterlite Industries up by 1.74%, Wipro up by 1.72%, Gail India up by 1.64% and Tata Motors up by 1.53%.

On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever  was down by 1.82%, ONGC was down by 1.69%, RIL was down by 1.30%, Jindal Steel was down by 1.13% and Bharti Airtel was down by 0.86% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) in its monthly review report expects investment proposals to see a spurt in the current quarter on the back of Vibrant Gujarat Summit (VGS) that was held earlier this month. CMIE in its report said ‘we expect new investment announcements to pick up in the January-March quarter. The Vibrant Gujarat investment fair happened recently in Gujarat is likely to contribute the most to this pick-up’.

As per the CMIE report, Narendra Modi's resounding hat-trick in the Gujarat Assembly elections will help Gujarat garner more investment proposals. The sixth edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit done in Gandhinagar last week, in which BJP government in the state asserting new investments worth Rs 40 lakh crore.

According to the Vibrant Gujarat Summit (VGS) of January 2009 and January 2011, Gujarat's share in total new investments has increased from an average 8.7% during the period April 2002-December 2008 to 37.2% in the March 2009 quarter. The average rate was 10.9% over the period April-June 2009 to October-December 2010 to 32% in the March 2011 quarter.

Further, CMIE report stated that the current fiscal 2012-13 started off well with new announcements worth Rs 2.29 lakh crore in the June 2012 quarter, before dropping to Rs 0.6 lakh crore during the September 2013 quarter and further declined to Rs 0.58 lakh crore in December 2013 quarter, but investment proposals are expected to see a spurt in the current quarter on the back of Summit.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,066.90 down by 7.75 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 6,088.40 and 6,061.40. There were 23 stocks advancing against 25 declines and 2 stocks remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Tech up by 3.02%, Cairn up by 1.98%, Wipro up by 1.85%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.73% and GAIL up by 1.67%.

On the flip side, Reliance Infra down by 2.30%, Ambuja Cement down by 2.16%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.98%, Jaiprakash Associates down by 1.84% and ONGC down by 1.83% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite surged 2.41%, Hang Seng rose 0.37%, Straits Times added 0.18% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.55%.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite declined 0.85%, Nikkei 225 slipped 0.94% and KOSPI Composite was down by 0.36%.