Benchmarks continue to sulk in red; cuts get deeper

The cuts at D-street grew deeper after Railways minister Pawan Kumar Bansal presenting the rail budget for 2013-14 in the Lok Sabha, informed about the mounting losses of Indian Railways,though abstained from hiking passenger fares. Stressed on financial sustainability of the Indian Railways, Bansal said the losses amounted to Rs 225 hundred crore. Thus, in backdrop of pessimistic global set-up, benchmark 30 share index, Sensex, was trading with triple digit losses, below the 19200 level. Nifty, too was trading with cut over three-fourth of a percent, was just holding the 5800 bastion. Although, stocks from TECk, Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Information Technology counters were in green, stocks from Auto, Oil & Gas and Capital Goods counters were endorsing the underlying weakness of the bourses. The overall market breadth remains in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 648: 1835, while 126 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19173.63, down by 158.06 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 19293.49 and 19154.96. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in the red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were down by 1.35% and 1.74% respectively.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, TECk up by 0.70%, FMCG up by 0.57% and IT up by 0.52%. While Auto down by 2.07%, Oil & Gas down by 1.93%, Capital Goods down by 1.58%, Metal down by 1.54% and PSU down by 1.39% were the losers on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were, Bharti Airtel up by 2.67%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.15%, ITC up by 1.11%, NTPC up by 0.97% and Infosys up by 0.88%

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 3.73%, Hindalco Industries down by 3.00%, ONGC down by 2.45%, ICICI Bank down by 2.42% and Bajaj Auto down by 2.24%, were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, for not complying with the order to bring new set of rules to rationalize the flying hours for pilots, the Supreme Court has issued contempt notice to Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and sought explanation regarding the same. An association of Indian pilots has filed the contempt petition against the aviation regulating body for not bringing new Civil Aviation Regulations (CAR) to minimize accidents caused by pilot fatigue. In line with this, the apex court, in May 2011, had directed the DGCA to expedite the process of bringing new CAR to rationalize the flying hours for pilots. 

As per the petitioner, it is urgent to implement new regulation as many of airplane accidents are happening due to fatigue of pilots as the probe in Mangalore plane crash of 2010, in which 158 people died, suggested that the pilot was asleep during part of the flight. Further, it is also reported that DGCA is selectively relaxing rules for a few private airlines, putting passenger safety at risk and is not taking action against those airlines which are flouting the rules.

Moreover, the Aviation Minister Ajit Singh also expressed disappointment over the past performance of the DGCA. He said that despite the increase in air passenger, aircraft movement over the past six years, the strength of DGCA, which is the regulatory body in the field of civil aviation, has gone up only in a marginal manner mainly due to the cumbersome recruitment process under the UPSC.

However, in the current Budget session, a bill to replace Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) by a new aviation regulatory body the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) - with full operational and financial autonomy is expected to be tabled in Parliament.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,804.95 down by 49.80 points or 0.85% after trading in a range of 5,838.85 and 5,801.10. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 declines and one remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.64%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.23%, JP Associate up by 1.18%, NTPC up by 1.03% and Infosys up by 0.97%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 3.76%, Hindalco down by 3.05%, BPCL down by 2.65%, IDFC down by 2.58% and Bajaj-Auto down by 2.56% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite was down by 1.40%. Hang Seng declined 0.84%, Jakarta Composite dropped 0.73%, KLSE Composite dipped 0.23%, Nikkei 225 tumbled 2.26%, Straits Times contracted 0.89%, KOSPI Composite decreased 0.47% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.84%.