Benchmarks show volatile trade

Indian markets are showing volatile trend in the late morning session. On the global front, Asian markets traded a mixed trend amidst caution ahead of the meetings of central banks of Japan, Britain and the Euro zone for any signs of monetary stimulus to boost growth into the fragile global economy. Back home, the traders were seen piling up positions in IT, Teck and Capital Goods, while selling was seen in Metal, Oil & Gas and Auto sector. In scrip specific development, telecom stocks like Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication edged lower as there was no decision on the timeline for the third round of auctions and further reduction in auction prices. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 5800 and 19200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was showing positive trend with advances to declines in ratio of 1091: 924.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19252.61, down by 8.23 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 19275.61 and 19212.92. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.18% and Small cap index was up by 0.28%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 1.20%, Teck up by 0.93%, Capital Goods up by 0.82%, Realty up by 0.74% and Power up by 0.54% while, Metal down by 0.95%, Oil & Gas down by 0.58%, Auto down by 0.49%, Bankex down by 0.26% and FMCG down by 0.06% were the  losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 2.83%, Sun Pharma up by 1.92%, Wipro up by 1.88%, BHEL up by 1.48% and TCS up by 1.20%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel was down by 2.55%, Tata Motors was down by 1.83%, Hindalco Industries was down by 1.57%, Tata Steel was down by 1.36% and  Hindustan Unilever was down by 1.18% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, on the backdrop of serious observations made by official auditor Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to submit information about the irregularities in the Rs 52,000 crore farm debt waiver scheme along with the details of amount recovered and FIRs filed in a prescribed format by 7th working day of every month.

The apex bank has also asked the banks to provide information with regard to ineligible and eligible beneficiaries, who were denied loans, money given to microfinance institutions, tampering of records and cases where relief certificates were not issued.

The CAG report, which was tabled in Parliament on March 6, deals with Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS) 2008, under which 3.69 crore small and marginal farmers and 60 lakh other farmers were given debt relief to the extent of Rs 52,516 crore. It said that numbers of shortcomings have found in the implementation of the Rs 52,000 crore farm debt waiver scheme and pointing out that thousands of beneficiaries were not eligible, while those eligible were denied the benefits.

The reported also pointed that out of 9,334 accounts test checked in audit across nine states, 1,257 accounts (13.46 percent) were those which were found in audit to be eligible for benefit under the scheme, but were not considered by the lending institutions while preparing list of eligible farmers. Further, out of 80,299 accounts granted debt waiver or relief, in which 8.5 percent of cases, the beneficiaries were not eligible for either debt waiver or the debt relief.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,813.60 down by 5.00 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 5,820.55 and 5,801.30. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 2.91%, DLF up by 1.96%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 1.95%, Wipro up by 1.72% and BHEL up by 1.65%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel & Power down by 2.17%, Tata Motors down by 1.83%, Kotak Bank down by 1.55%, Hindalco down by 1.38% and Cairn down by 1.27% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices trading mixed; Shanghai Composite rose 0.13 points or 0.01% to 2,347.31, Jakarta Composite jumped 5.80 points or 0.12% to 4,830.48, Nikkei 225 added 50.33 points or 0.42% to 11,982.94, Straits Times increased 1.00 points or 0.03% to 3,292.56, and Taiwan Weighted was up by 12.21 points or 0.15% to 7,962.86.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite slipped 1.23 points or 0.07% to 1,650.61, Hang Seng decreased 27.09 points or 0.12% to 22,750.75, and KOSPI Composite was down by 17.54 points or 0.87% to 2,003.18.