Barometer gauges continue to sulk in red; FMCG counter shows resilience

Barometer gauges continue to languish in red terrain on account of sustained selling pressure on the back of weak cues and lessened hopes of a rate cut following a spike in CPI inflation. Prevailing caution ahead of WPI inflation data tomorrow too is discouraging investors from taking bet into risky asset-class such as equities. The 30-share barometer, Sensex, which has lost over 118 points in the previous two sessions, is trading lower over century of points near 19450 level. Likewise, Nifty too shedding over 30 points is oscillating near 5850 level. Meanwhile, broader indices, signaling a deeper damage continued to lurk in the red. Sectorally, Consumer Durable, Auto and Information Technology are the worst performers, while Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) counter, bucking the trend is trading in green. Sentiments at D-street were also dampened after some investment bankers cut their India's economic growth forecasts for 2013/14 to 6.0% from 6.2% to reflect lower-than-expected growth in the October-December quarter. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which outnumbered advances in the ratio of 1598:889, while 111 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19457.58, down by 107.34 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 19511.97 and 19425.86. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading lower by 0.61% and 0.68% respectively.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE where, Consumer Durables down by 1.46%, Auto down by 1.14%, IT down by 1.10%, Bankex down by 1.02% and Teck down by 0.93%, while FMCG up by 0.47% was the only gainer on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.15%, Coal India up by 0.93%, HUL up by 0.87%, RIL up by 0.77% and Sterlite Industries up by 0.76%.

On the flip side, Hindalco Industries down by 3.02%, ONGC down by 2.14%, Jindal Steel down by 2.10%, ICICI Bank down by 1.99% and Infosys down by 1.89% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, considering the 2.4 percent rise in Indian industrial output numbers of January, the Government hopes that the prevailing economic slowdown might be bottoming out. The Government has hoped that macro-economic indicators would move up in the coming months. In a pleasant surprise, India's annual industrial output growth measured by index of industrial production (IIP) grew by 2.4% at 181.8 for the month of January 2013. The numbers were way above the expectations of the 1% growth figure. The cumulative growth for the period April-December 2012-13 over the corresponding period of the previous year stood at 1%. 

On the recently published January IIP data, Commerce and Industry Minister, Anand Sharma has said that IIP figure is encouraging and we feel the economic downturn is bottoming out, but we have to do more, both on exports and industrial manufacturing. Moreover, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said 'The turnaround is good. I would not call it strong growth but it does bear out that the economy has bottomed out. I would hope that subsequent months will show more robust growth”. 

However, the economic growth rate fell to a decade low of 4.5 percent in October -December quarter. The Central Statistical Office (CSO) has projected India's economic growth at an alarmingly low 5% in 2012-13, the worst in 10 years.The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,875.20, down by 38.90 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 5,893.85 and 5,869.05. There were 13 stocks advancing against 36 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Asian Paints up by 1.21%, Sun Pharma up by 1.11%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.89%, HCL Technologies up by 0.78% and Sesa Goa up by 0.73%.

On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.92%, Jindal Steel down by 2.62%, Axis Bank down by 2.38%, ONGC down by 2.37% and ICICI Bank down by 2.10%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite declined 0.89%, Hang Seng tumbled 1.01%, Jakarta Composite slipped 0.30%, KLSE Composite dropped 0.75%, Nikkei 225 dipped 0.61% and Straits Times contracted 0.60%.

On the flip side, KOSPI Composite increased by 0.32% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.01%.