Indian equity markets add losses; Nifty below 5,900 mark

Indian equity markets added losses to continue weak trade below neutral line hovering near the lowest point of the day in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline counters and taking cues from European counterparts. Investors have opted for conservative approach from taking position in risky assets ahead of the Union Budget 2013-14 scheduled to be released day after tomorrow while the Railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal presenting the rail budget for 2013-14 today in the Lok Sabha, informed about the mounting losses of Indian Railways, though abstained from hiking passenger fares. Traders were seen piling some position in IT, TECk and FMCG sector while selling was witnessed in Oil & Gas, Auto and Capital Goods sector.

In the scrip specific development, Hero MotoCorp was trading in red after members of company’s workers’ union at its Gurgaon unit decided to go on a hunger strike from Thursday, demanding higher wages after several rounds of negotiations failed to reach any settlement. Pantaloon Retail was trading in red after the research firm JP Morgan put an underweight rating on the stock after weak set of quarterly earnings. Jet Airways was trading under pressure extending losses for the fourth straight day, amid investor concerns whether its stake-sale deal with Etihad Airways would materialize. Kingfisher Airlines was locked in lower circuit limit after the civil aviation ministry withdrew its international flying rights along with cancellation of slots at domestic airports.

On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading in red while the European markets were too trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 5,800 and 19,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 666:1996 while 129 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,114.65, down by 217.04 points or 1.12% after trading in a range of 19,293.49 and 19,090.03. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in the red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were down by 1.43% and 2.05% respectively.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 0.57%, TECk up by 0.41% and FMCG up by 0.38%. While Oil & Gas down by 2.56%, Auto down by 2.19%, Capital Goods down by 1.99%, PSU down by 1.78% and Metal down by 1.72% were the top losers on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were, TCS up by 0.95%, NTPC up by 0.93%, Infosys up by 0.88%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.88% and ITC up by 0.74%

On the flip side, ONGC down by 3.77%, Tata Motors down by 3.68%, Hindalco Industries down by 3.00%, ICICI Bank down by 2.83% and Reliance Industries down by 2.70%, were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG), one of the fastest growing segments of the gas market, is expected to rise by 4.6% annually over the next 15 years. For the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region alone, the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects demand for natural gas to rise by 79 billion cubic meters (bcm) or 20% between 2011 and 2017, surpassing incremental supply in the region by 7 bcm since low gas prices supports higher consumption by the utilities and transportation sectors.

Similarly, demand from the Asia-Pacific region for LNG from the MENA region is also strong, mainly from Japan, Korea and India. Further, going by this trend, it looks like it will continue through 2020 with a significant rise expected in demand from China and Korea.

As per IEA, to meet the growing demands, the infrastructure underpinning global trade in LNG - storage tanks, terminals, tankers will need to grow and develop in tandem. The growth of the global LNG market is spurring innovation in the industry and there are some fascinating cutting edge technologies being developed at the moment, which we will be getting an insight into at LNG 17, it added.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,790.35 down by 64.40 points or 1.10% after trading in a range of 5,838.85 and 5,782.40. There were 9 stocks advancing against 41 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associates up by 1.76%, NTPC up by 1.13%, Infosys up by 1.01%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.99% and TCS up by 0.96%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 3.68%, ONGC down by 3.49%, Hindalco down by 3.00%, Bajaj-Auto down by 2.84% and ICICI Bank down by 2.83% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite was down by 1.40%. Hang Seng declined 1.32%, Jakarta Composite dropped 0.91%, KLSE Composite dipped 0.15%, Nikkei 225 tumbled 2.26%, Straits Times contracted 0.94%, KOSPI Composite decreased 0.47% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.84%.

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 dropped 2.31%, Germany’s DAX lost 1.75% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 edged lower by 1.35%.