Benchmarks extend losses; Metal, IT drags

Indian equities continued to trade weak in the late morning session as investors are cautious ahead of the announcement of the headline inflation data .This is likely to decide the stance of RBI's monetary policy on March 19. On the global front, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green at this point of time. South Korean KOSPI Composite trading in the green after hitting a three-week closing high and logging their biggest daily percentage gain since January 2 on Wednesday as investors cheered a pause in the yen’s decline.  The traders were seen piling up position in Metal, IT and FMCG while selling was seen Auto, Consumer Durables and Capital Goods sector. In scrip specific development, BPCL, HPCL and IOC edged higher on plan to raise petrol price by Re 1 per litre and diesel by 50 paise a litre if they get the informal nod of oil minister. Wipro slumped after reports suggested that it will be dropped from the National Stock Exchange’s benchmark index Nifty from April 1. Kingfisher Airlines shares dropped for a second day after lenders decided to recall their loans to the ground carrier. Blue chips like State Bank of India and Tata Motors fell ahead of reporting their quarterly earnings. Maruti Suzuki dropped ahead of exclusion from MSCI. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5900 and 19,500 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was negative; advances: declines in the ratio of 748: 1284.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19588.18 down by 19.90 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 19639.83 and 19584.21. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.67% and Small cap index was down by 0.72%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 0.62%, IT up by 0.61%, FMCG up by 0.36%,  Oil & Gas up by 0.33% and PSU up by 0.07%. While, Auto down by 1.52%, Consumer Durables down by 1.06%, Capital Goods down by 0.95%, Health Care down by 0.83%  and Power down by 0.64% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sterlite Inds up by 1.31%, NTPC up by 1.21%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.19%, TCS up by 1.16% and Infosys up by 1.11%

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.12%, Wipro was down by 2.61%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 2.61%, Tata Motors was down by 2.35% and Dr Reddys Lab was down by 1.91%were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, though the latest foreign trade data, which shows exports moved out of the negative zone in January 2013 after eight straight months of decline, posting a meagre growth of 0.82% at $25.58 billion, India Inc. believes that the slow-down in shipments still remains a cause for concern and the government needs to continue its support.

As per ASSOCHAM, the worrying factor is that the country’s trade deficit is widening due to import of oil and gold rather than import of capital goods. It has suggested that the government should review the implementation of its industrial and trade policies to boost exports and industrial performance. The industry body also expressed serious concerns over trade balance and said that the deteriorating trade balance has been the main culprit behind pushing the current account deficit to unsustainable levels.

According to CII National Committee on Exports & Imports Chairman Sanjay Budhia, the marginal growth in the January export growth shows that exports are slowly and steadily gaining momentum and continuation of this trend will help contain the trade deficit. He added that the government should extend two per cent Interest Subvention Scheme to all sectors for exports to make it more competitive with their counterparts. The industries are eagerly expecting the announcement of revamped 100 percent SEZ and EOU schemes.

Moreover, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations also recommended the government to support high-technology exports which account less than nine per cent to total exports. Regarding the shares of technology exports in Asian countries, it stated that in Singapore and the Philippines the share of tech exports is over 50 per cent, while, for Malaysia, it account for 45 per cent of the country’s exports

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,921.20 down by 11.75 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 5,940.20 and 5,920.30. There were 22 stocks advancing against 27 declines while 1 stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were NTPC up by 1.28%, ONGC up by 1.17%, Infosys up by 1.09%, Jindal Steel up by 1.09%, and Ultra Cement up by 1.01%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.30%, Siemens down by 2.93%, Wipro down by 2.70%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.48% and Tata Motors down by 2.36% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Hang Seng surged 214.88 points or 0.93% to 23,430.04, Jakarta Composite rose 28.65 points or 0.63% to 4,600.22, KLSE Composite added 2.69 points or 0.16% to 1,633.85 and Nikkei 225 increased 61.02 points or 0.54% to 11,312.43.On the flip side, Straits Times was down by 5.65 points or 0.17% to 3,295.39 and KOSPI Composite was down by 1.22 points or 0.06% to 1,974.85.

China and Taiwan markets remained closed for the trade today.