Sensex, Nifty remain marginally in red

Indian benchmarks were trading marginally in red in the late morning session due to sustained selling by funds amid a mixed trend in Asian trade. Sentiments got dampened on overnight losses in the US market.Back home, the traders were seen piling up position in TECk, IT and Realty, while selling was seen in Consumer Durables, Auto, and FMCG sectors. In scrip specific development, Gitanjali Gems soared on reporting that the company’s Management Committee has approved the issuance of foreign currency convertible bonds due 2018 to be listed on Singapore Exchange Securities Trading and has decided to open the issue on February 25, 2013. Gujarat Gas surged after robust Q4 earnings. Havells India gained after the company's board approved increasing the shareholding limit of foreign institutional investors in the company to 40% from 24%. Shares of Jet Airways dropped on reports that its stake sale deal with Etihad Airways could be in jeopardy. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading near their psychological 5800 and 19,300 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was showing negative trend with advances to declines in ratio of 635:1040.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19320.98, down by 4.38 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 19366.64 and 19289.83. 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 0.06% and Small cap index was lower by 0.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, TECk up by 1.19%, IT up by 1.18%, Realty up by 1.00% Oil & Gas up by 0.86% and Health Care up by 0.45%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.01%, Auto down by 0.91%, FMCG down by 0.84%, Metal down by 0.68% and PSU down by 0.08% were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 2.29%, Sun Pharma up by 2.23%, ONGC up by 2.15%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.04%, Infosys up by 1.36% and

On the flip side, HDFC was down by 2.69%, Tata Motors was down by 1.88%, Hindalco Inds was down by 1.62%, Hindustan Unilever was down by 1.61%, and Coal India down by 1.21% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, to make the capital goods industry more competitive globally, the Department of Heavy Industry (DHI) has planned to consider a policy particularly focusing on capital goods sector. DHI Secretary M F Farooqui said, the department will examine developing a policy specifically targeting the beleaguered capital goods sector and after examining the policy issues, the department would make recommendations to achieve the target of 17% growth in the sector as envisaged in the 12th Five-Year Plan.

The capital goods industry, which constitutes heavy machinery including machine tools, currently, contributes about 12% to the total manufacturing activity. The Indian capital goods sector gives employment to 14 lakh people, has an important bearing on the growth of the user industries. The sector's growth has been decelerating in the recent years as the capital goods manufacturers have not been able to effectively tap global opportunities due to major issues faced by them like high interest rates, tax structure, reduction in custom duties and unregulated second-hand machinery imports. 

The DHI expressed the need to encourage innovation and build competitiveness for the industry as this is the key sector for business expansion as well as it provides the sustenance for a large group of people. Further, the department also urged the government to consider giving the sector the same kind of support provided to the automotive sector.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,844.05 down by 8.20 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 5,862.30 and 5,835.80. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Wipro up by 2.44%, Sun Pharma up by 1.94%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.81%, ONGC up by 1.46% and Infosys up by 1.36%.

On the flip side, HDFC down by 2.71%, JP Associate down by 2.65%, Tata Motors down by 1.95%, Hindalco down by 1.81% and HUL down by 1.76%, were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Hang Seng decreased 114.12 points or 0.50% to 22,792.55, Jakarta Composite dipped 0.96 points or 0.02% to 4,631.45, Taiwan Weighted was down by 5.83 points or 0.07% to 7,951.63 and Straits Times was down by 7.53 points or 0.23% to 3,280.07.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite rose 2.23 points or 0.14% to 1,616.28, Nikkei 225 added 38.00 points or 0.34% to 11,347.13, KOSPI Composite surged 1.63 points or 0.08% to 2,016.55 and Shanghai Composite up by 2.85 points or 0.12% to 2,328.80.