Benchmarks pare losses to trade flat; Nifty stays above 5800

Barometer gauges, pruning most of their losses in a range bound trade are trading flat amidst mixed global cues. Absence of any positive trigger at home has kept investor’s on the sidelines. Benchmark 30 share index, lacking any fervor, is trading below the 19250 mark, but, 50 share index, Nifty, is managing to hold above the 5800 bastion. Broader indices, meanwhile, are holding their fort in green. Select buying in Information Technology, Capital Goods and Realty counters have aided benchmarks in cutting losses, while Metal, Oil & Gas and Public Sector Undertaking counters are the major pockets of weakness. On the global front, Asian shares were trading mixed after two strong days of gains on Thursday, as investors focused on meetings of the central banks of Japan, Britain and the euro zone for signs of more policy stimulus, while solid US economic data underpinned the dollar. Closer home, investors are waiting for key inflation and industrial output data due next week that will be crucial ahead of the RBI's policy review on March 19. Any additional government fiscal measures too will boost the sentiments of the market-participants at D-street. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which have thumped advances in the ratio of 1280:1194, while 124 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19247.74, down by 4.87 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 19275.61 and 19212.92. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 declines on the index.

The broader indices continued to hang in green albeit with marginal gains; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading up by 0.03 and 0.21% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 1.57%, Teck up by 1.19%, Capital Goods up by 0.85%, Realty up by 0.48% and Healthcare up by 0.39% while, Metal down by 1.22%, Oil & Gas down by 0.83%, PSU down by 0.53%, FMCG down by 0.45% and Consumer Durable down by 0.42% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 3.07%, TCS up by 2.07%, Wipro up by 2.00%, Sun Pharma up by 1.77% and BHEL up by 1.62%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 3.01%, Hindalco Industries down by 1.82%, Tata Steel down by 1.76%, Tata Motors down by 1.47% and  Hindustan Unilver was down by 1.07% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government is expected to get around Rs 23,000 crore by levying one-time spectrum fee on existing operators for holding radiowaves beyond a prescribed limit. The government had issued notices to telecom companies including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and BSNL, MTNL and Idea Cellular for the excess spectrum they hold beyond the prescribed limit. The operators were given the option to give up spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz if they did not wish to pay the charges.

State-owned BSNL will have to pay around Rs 6,912 crore, Bharti Airtel - Rs 5,201 crore, Vodafone - Rs 3,599 crore, MTNL - Rs 3,205 crore and Idea Cellular - Rs 1,882 crore. To be more precise, the government is likely to get Rs 4,251.83 crore from retrospective charges, Rs 18,925.82 crore from prospective charges. In all Rs 23,177.65 crore is expected from levy of one-time spectrum fee.

Earlier, for pan-India operations, telecom firms were given 4.4 MHz spectrum with license for Rs 1,658 crore and later were permitted to get another 1.8 MHz on fulfillment of certain subscriber-base criteria. However, in November, the government decided that the telecom operators will have to pay charges for holding spectrum above 6.2 MHz retrospectively, for the period of July 2008 to January 1, 2013. For spectrum above 4.4 MHz, they would have to pay for the remaining period of their licences starting January 1, 2013.

There is no respite for the telecom operators, being under the anvil from time and again. However given the option to forfeit the spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz if they did not wish to pay the charges, the operators have reluctantly agreed to pay.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,813.75, down by 4.85 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 5,820.55 and 5,801.30. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 3.20%, DLF up by 1.89%, TCS up by 1.87%, HCL Technologies up by 1.83% and Sun Pharma up by 1.81%.On the flip side, Jindal Steel & Power down by 2.93%, Hindalco down by 1.77%, Tata Steel down by 1.73%, Ambuja Cement down by 1.69% and Reliance Infra down by 1.68% were the major losers on the index.

Most Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Jakarta Composite jumped 0.25%, Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.13%, Nikkei 225 added 0.30% and Straits Times was up by 0.01%

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 1.21%, KLSE Composite slipped 0.11%, Hang Seng decreased 0.24%, and KOSPI Composite declined 0.81%.